29 Jul NWBL Round 6 Wrap
The top three teams took on the bottom three in Round 6 of the NWBL and while there weren’t any unexpected results, there are still plenty of questions around how the finals will look going into the last round.
Perth have completed their regular season finishing on top of the NWBL table and will now sit back during a final round bye to see where they end up on the ladder going into the Finals in a fortnight’s time.
The Wheelcats were able to share the minutes in their games against cellar dwellers Adelaide but having their stars take a back seat to the next generation didn’t stop the scoreboard from ticking over with the Wheelcats winning 88-29 and 84-30 on Saturday and 109-24 on Sunday.
Tom McHugh still led the way with 28.7 points per game, but it came in less than 21 minutes per game for the weekend. His 38 points on Sunday was achieved in under 22 minutes.
Ben Moncrieff averaged 21.3 points per game including a 30-point outing on Sunday as he started in place of McHugh.
But it wasn’t just the high pointers that made an impact. In Game 1 Jordan Mourtitz was the only Wheelcat to play more than 26 minutes; in Game 2, Shaun Norris, Frank Pinder and Jake Kavanagh played less than 15 minutes each with Cooper Spillane (9 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists), Natt Hongsri (4 points, 4 rebounds) and Simon Koric (31 minutes) getting the bulk of the minutes.
It was a similar story on Sunday with all 9 players seeing at least 20 minutes of court time.
In the absence of Ben Etteridge, Shaun Norris took hold of the clipboard as coach.
“Firstly, give a hats off to Adelaide for being back in the league and giving their all. For us it was our last weekend of games before finals, so it was important for us to get as much out of it to build before heading off.” said Norris.
“Our future stars stepped up and put in some good minutes and took the most of their opportunities. Feels like we are in a good place leading into finals.”
While Perth were able to share the minutes, Adelaide were in stark contrast, travelling west with just seven players, Fernando Mondial, Shaun Whitbread and Soraj Habib played all 40 minutes of all three games.
“We had a few players out sick which left us with only two on the bench and three players having to play every minute of every game,” said Adelaide’s Lucinda Bueti.
“There were some great patches with Fernando and Soraj working really well together to get some great shots.”
“Wheelcats were a great opponent, they were incredibly humble and supportive. They came out and played incredible basketball and were great sports about it, encouraging our players when we had a good string of plays.”
Despite another weekend of lop-sided results, Bueti insists she’s seeing progress both personally and as a unit.
“We are in the league to get our players experience playing at a higher level and playing against players like Shaun and Tom is great for us to learn and push harder.”
“I’m loving it, it’s an opportunity to play more games in a different role than when playing women’s league. The physicality of the game is a lot more intense and I’m having to take a leadership role on court.”
In Wollongong, points were at a premium both on the court and on the ladder. The Roller Hawks were looking to stay in the hunt for a top two finish while the Red Dust Heelers were ready to take any chance they got to knock over the home side.
All three games started off slowly for both teams with Red Dust leading the Roller Hawks midway through the first quarter of all three games before the home side took control through their high pointers Tristan Knowles and Shawn Russell and finished winners 67-33, 72-43 and 58-42.
Despite the comfortable final margins, Red Dust and in particular Heelers import Sabri Bedzeti, made the Roller Hawks work for it.
“Bedzeti is awesome,” said Shawn Russell. “He’s a world class player that’s for sure. His mobility in the chair and the way he moves is elite.”
“And it’s good, leading into the finals we need those games where we can test our line up and just make sure we’re all on the same page.”
Knowles averaged 20.7 points and 12 assists per game while Russell had 18.7 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.
“This is only the third weekend we’ve had our starting line-up all available to play so it was a good chance to get some cobwebs out.”
Lachie Dalton led the Heelers with 13.7 points per game and Bedzeti averaged 12.7 points and 16 rebounds, but their points came at an expensive clip, the Wollongong defence restricted the pair to a combined 29% from the field for the weekend.
“Wollongong is a very intense team, they’re very good,” said Bedzeti.
“It’s a good league. I play in the Italian league, it is a little bit more stronger, but Australia has some very fast, strong players.”
“Tristan Knowles. I mean wow.”
Manly went into their fifth round in the top gradew with 6 wins from their games against Red Dust and Southern Districts but a 0-6 record against top teams Wollongong and Perth.
Hosting Darwin presented the Wheel Eagles with a chance to try and get a win over a national league powerhouse, but the Salties wasted little time taking control in Game 1.
A Bill Latham shot opened the scoring before Darwin went on a 12-2 run. Manly eventually got their score into double figures late in the first quarter to trail 10-18 after one period, but there was little respite after the quarter time break with Darwin holding the Wheel Eagles to 6 points in the second quarter while posting 18 of their own to lead 36-16 at half time.
The two for one scoring continued into the third before Manly finished with a 22-18 final quarter but Darwin were too far gone winning 80-51.
It was a similar story in Game 2 and 3 with Darwin holding Manly to single digits in the opening quarters of each (19-8 and 18-6) to put the pressure on the Wheel Eagles from the outset.
The Salties would win all four quarters of both games and defeat Manly 83-47 and 82-60.
“I thought as a team we were a little flat in the first two games,” said Manly captain Mick Gray.
“Our communication on court wasn’t great, it definitely picked up in the last game.”
“As a team we have come a long way since round one. Darwin has a super squad, elite talent, in every position. They move the ball well, play great defence and give you very little opportunity on both ends of the floor.”
”I’m very proud of the way we stuck at it. It’s a really good learning weekend.”
Next weekend, the final round of the regular season will see Wollongong travel to Brisbane to battle the Spartans, Manly hosts Adelaide and the Salties play the Red Dust Heelers.