16 Jun WNWBL Round 2 Wrap
The Sydney Blues maintained their strong start to the season with three wins over the Perth Wheelcats in Perth, the Victoria Wonders also continued their dream entry into national league basketball while the Sydney Uni Lions also joined the winner’s circle with success in Adelaide.
The Blues were switched on from the beginning against the Wheelcats and while they looked good in attack, much of it stemmed from their defence, applying full court pressure on Perth’s ball handlers, forcing tough shots in the half court and crashing the boards at both ends of the floor.
In Game 1, the Blues rolled to a 19-6 first quarter advantage that the Wheelcats could not rein in. High pointers Georgia Munro-Cook (13 points, 11 rebounds) and Teisha Shadwell (10 points, 8 rebounds) were strong inside but it was Maryanne Latu who led the Blues with 18 points to go with 9 assists and 7 rebounds on the way to a 51-33 win.
The home side responded in Game 2 staying with the Blues to start the game but a 21-8 second period gave Sydney a commanding advantage. Munro-Cook was busy early and by game’s end had a triple double with 19 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists. But it was truly a team effort by Troy Sach’s side; Shadwell (15 points, 10 rebounds), Jess Cronje (10 points) and Latu (9 points) all contributed on the scoreboard while low pointers Victoria Simpson, Daniella Egle-Bast and new recruit Clare Nott ensured their bigs had space all night long. Blues too good 59-32.
Another team-oriented performance saw the Blues sweep the Wheelcats 3-0 on Sunday with a 56-23 win. Six of Sydney’s seven players got on the scoreboard as the Blues remained unbeaten at the top of the ladder.
On the Gold Coast, the Victoria Wonders and the Rollers battled hard over three games but the experience of the Wonders’ starting side was too strong for the home team.
Laura Davoli and Leanne Del Toso were a formidable one-two combo across the weekend averaging 16.7 points and 14 points per game respectively with Shelley Matheson going to the pair again and again.
“Leanne’s obviously one of the best knockdown shooters in the league, she’s phenomenal at what she does and we went to that time and time again against Adelaide and then this round we saw another evolution of Leanne which we didn’t get a lot of opportunities to do in our first round. The Gold Coast were up in our faces and on chairs and Dorsa just works her magic, her and I playing together, knowing exactly where we’re going to be, just opened up the game,” said Matheson.
Victoria were without head coach Jeremy Synott who is with the men’s U23 team in Brazil.
“We had a little bit more flexibility to read and react which is what Leanne and I are really, really good at and then Issy and Laura are just growing in confidence and their connection on the court, the two of them, yeah, it was really, really hard to stop for the Gold Coast, so we often had had five threats so that was a big advantage for us.”
The Gold Coast starters also had to accumulate big minutes with Shae Graham a late withdrawal which pushed rookie Harriet Caldwell into the starting side and on Sunday she top scored with 18 points on 9/16 shooting.
“Being able to feed the ball to Harriet, with other four really experienced players that Harriet’s playing with, being able to create space for her, it saw her have three really great offensive games which is cool.”
For the Rollers, the round was another learning curve including playing alongside Annabelle Lindsay for the first time.
“Annabelle draws a lot of attention from the opposition which opens up for our other players. She communicates effectively and leads through action. Our girls will keep learning from her as we go on and keep building,” said Gold Coast coach Ella Sabljak.
“We’ve had massive improvements with the girls knowing their roles and gelling together. We kept getting better each possession, quarter & game.”
The Sydney Uni Lions are in the win column after picking up three wins in Adelaide. The Thunder stayed within a few points of the Lions up to halftime of the first two games but the experience of the visitors soon shone through.
In Game 1 the Lions won 57-34 led by rookie Didem Yildirim (18 points) and Tracey Carruthers (14 points). Yildirim was at it again in game 2 with another 18 points while Hannah Dodd had 18 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists. Game 3 saw Dodd with 16 points and 11 rebounds while Carruthers had 12 on 6/10 shooting.
Coach Alan Cox made sure all his players saw court time with rookies Reema El Qassem and Talyn Reedy also getting quality minutes as the Lions look to bring through the next generation.
Adelaide were anchored by Isobella Nitschke who averaged a double double for the weekend with 11.3 points and 12.7 rebounds per game.
The Thunder will take plenty of positives from the weekend including staying with the Lions on shooting percentage but turnovers (86-32 for the weekend) proved a major difference with Sydney Uni enjoying an average of 21 extra shot attempts per game.
The WNWBL resumes on July 4th with Perth hosting Adelaide, Victoria at home to Sydney Uni and the Blues and Rollers meeting on the Gold Coast.