03 Jun WNWBL Round 1 Wrap
The Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League returned to court as established stars and bright young talent both got their opportunities to shine.
The Sydney Blues put on three strong displays against defending champions Sydney Uni to lead the competition after one round. League newcomers Victoria Wonders also started the season well with three wins over Adelaide and on the Gold Coast, the Rollers made Perth earn their three victories across the weekend.
Despite being reigning champions, Sydney Uni took to the court with a completely revamped line up with only four players from the team that took out last year’s title suiting up on Friday night.
Both sides needed to blow out a few cobwebs to start their season opener but soon it was Troy Sachs’ squad that took the ascendancy.
It was at the defensive end that the Blues really flexed their muscle, pressing the Sydney Uni line up which fielded six WNWBL debutants and out scoring the home side 32-11 in second half after scores were tied 18-all at the main break.
Georgia Munro-Cook led all scorers with 22.
“I think our defence just got a bit better, and we were able to force some turnovers and get some easy baskets,” said Munro-Cook after the game.
It was a similar story in Games 2 and 3 with the Blues too strong in both, winning 75-35 and 70-45.
Munro-Cook’s weekend only got better, scoring 35 points on Saturday and 43 on Sunday.
“We’ve had a few of us training together pretty regularly which has been good, but playing is always a bit different than training.”
Mellissa Dunn was another new face in University’s line up, playing with the team for the very first time.
“It was exciting, great playing with the women, first time I’ve played in a women’s team, I thought they all did really well,” said Dunn.
Although new to the women’s league, Dunn is hardly an unknown, a silver medalist with the Gliders in Sydney 2000, Dunn has spent the last three years with her hometown Darwin Salties in the NWBL.
“Everyone assumes the women aren’t as fast or as talented but that’s definitely not the case, I can tell you a lot of these women are really talented, they’re really good at what they do and they’ve got a lot of basketball knowledge as well, the men might be more powerful but I think the women are smarter!”
“But don’t tell them that!”
Her experience is set to be invaluable in a side with so many young players.
“I think mainly support and encouragement. The more women we have in sports, not even just disabled sports but all sports, it helps all of us.”
On the Gold Coast, the Rollers showed plenty of promise as they remained in the hunt in all three games over perennial contender, the Perth Wheelcats.
Bridie Kean led the way for the Gold Coast with 15.5 points per game and was well supported by Ashlee Grice (12.3ppg) but the well drilled Wheelcats were able to keep the home team at bay winning 50-37, 59-43 and 55-33.
The Wheelcats had three players in double figures for the weekend (Sarah Vinci 12.7ppg, Ebony Stevenson 11.5ppg & Laura Gillis 10.3ppg) while Taishar Ovens (9.3ppg) and Natalie Alexander (8.7ppg) were not far behind, proving the only way they are going to fill the gap left by Amber Merritt is as a team.
There were plenty of positives for the Rollers to take away in their opening weekend and will be boosted by the arrival of Annabelle Lindsay when they meet Victoria in Round 2.
In the battle of the expansion clubs, Victoria were able to claim victory in all three games against the Adelaide Thunder.
The experience of the Wonders was tough for the Thunder to contain as Leanne Del Toso (17.3ppg) and Laura Davoli (16.0ppg) finished the weekend second and third on the league’s leading point scorer’s tally.
Isobella Nitschke worked hard at the defensive end averaging 11.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game as the visitors fielded five players that had never played in the national league before.
In the debut of 3X3, the Blues, Wheelcats and Wonders each won both their games with some teams taking the opportunity to roll with different line ups across the two games to give more players an opportunity to get on court.
In Melbourne, the Adelaide won 9-3 and 4-1 over Victoria, the Blues defeated Sydney Uni 9-4 and 10-6 while one the Gold Coast, the Wheelcats won a narrow one on Saturday 5-3 before a strong display on Sunday winning 15-3.
Round 2 tips off on June 13th with the Gold Coast at home to Victoria, Perth hosting the Blues and Adelaide welcoming the Sydney Uni Lions.