Wallan Panthers overcame a depleted squad to record two vital wins in the women’s Basketball Victoria Country Basketball League’s north-east division.
The team travelled to Echuca on Saturday with just eight players, including a 13-year-old development player and a player who had never played senior representative basketball before.
Panthers’ coach Warren Taylor said he knew key players would have to play big minutes.
“To say we were underdogs was an understatement,” he said.
“It was always going to be one of those weekends we just had to endure and do our best just to compete.
“We were missing two of our strong inside targets, Rosie and Emma Renton, and guards Megan and Karina Marasco. Sarah Taylor who has been super for us all year was also missing.”
While Taylor still had four of his best players, he still had concerns.
Tracy Tuesley has been battling an ongoing injury, while Alex Darby took a calf injury into the game.
Taylor said it was mixed first half to start the game.
“We came out Ok and were competitive early and before too long a bit of self belief set in.
“I think we probably all knew we were up against it given our unavailabilities, so when we got a reasonable first quarter in, we get a feel we could certainly give the game a crack.
“We led 17-10 at quarter time and were feeling pretty good until our defence dropped off and Echuca started finding the basket in the second.
“We weren’t great that quarter and Echuca smashed us, to go into half time up 34-31.”
The Panthers didn’t let the second quarter faze them and stepped it up in the second half, with Gemma Jackson leading the way.
“Gemma was really playing out of position from what she had been all year but she was just outstanding and her eight points in the third quarter was special.,” Taylor said.
“It gave us a five point lead at three-quarter time and set the stage for an arm wrestle last.”
Despite the lead, Taylor wasn’t overly confident going into the last quarter.
“I’ll admit I felt we might run out of legs late given we were on the road and I had played Gemma, Tracy, Alex and Jayda Hunter almost full games.
“Gemma continued to dominate and we got the lead out to about 10 points before Echuca got back into the game.
“We managed to steady through Gemma and Tracey and didn’t let get the lead back.”
The Panthers won 73-67.
Taylor was high praise for his players efforts.
“Our first gamer Lily Spratling was amazing. For a girl who has only played domestic basketball she played a really smart and steady game.
“But the story was Gemma who played all 40 minutes. She had 24 points and 16 rebounds playing in the four position, she was the difference in the game.”
Alex Darby had 21 points, while Tusley scored 14 points.
The challenge for the Panthers was to back it up the next day against Maryborough.
Sarah Taylor and Karina Marasco returned to the side, which had the competition’s best scorer, Tori Chandler.
Chandler, who averages about 25 points per game, didn’t play the last time the two teams met.
Having played her best game of the season the night before, Jackson backed it up early against Maryborough.
“Gemma basically decided her monster game Saturday night wasn’t enough and opened the game with a 16 point first quarter on 5-6 field goal shooting and a perfect 5-5 at the free throw line, to blow Maryborough out of the water,” Taylor said.
“We ended the first quarter up 23-6 and any time you keep a team to six points in a quarter your defence is obviously going alright.”
Taylor said it was defence which was the key to the 71-36 win.
“Our team defence, specifically how well we moved our feet and stayed committed to the process, was just brilliant,” he said.
“We held them quarter by quarter to six, seven, nine and 14 points. In the last quarter I rested some of our better players.
“We held Chandler to four points and their highest scorer could only manage eight points.”
Jackson scored 24 points to back up her 24 points from the night before. Darby had 16 points and 16-year-old Bendigo Spirit development squad member Jordyn Grubisic was also good for the Panthers.
The Panthers sit third going into the final weekend of games before Christmas.
“It’s a tough weekend coming up against the top two teams, Bendigo and Wodonga.
“We are now pretty confident we can at least split that weekend.”
