Sunday represented a milestone for the Wallan Panthers with the basketball club fielding its first ever senior women’s representative side.
The Panthers, coached by Craigieburn and Hume City Broncos Big V championship winning coach Warren Taylor, are this season playing in the Country Basketball League’s north east competition.
The Panthers had a tough ask first up facing last year’s runners-up Wodonga Wolves at their home court.
Despite lacking the experience of the Wolves, the Panthers were the side that started the better of two teams, hitting the first eight points of the game.
The Wolves soon found their groove and found a way through the Panthers steady defence to get to the ring.
In the second quarter, the Panthers were forced into making turnovers with the Wolves capitalising on the scoreboard and opening up a handy lead.
Panthers Gemma Jackson, Rosie Renton and Jayda Hunter though ensured their team wasn’t going to be blown off the court and kept the scoreboard ticking over.
The Panthers trailed by one point at the last change.
The Wolves experience showed through in the final quarter to hold off the spirited Panthers, winning 60-52.
Jackson, who was Lancefield’s A-grade netball captain during the winter, finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
Alex Darby, who starred for the Sunbury Jets in Big V youth division 2 competition, scored 10 points.
Rosie and Emma Renton, Hunter and Tracey Tuesley were all solid contributors.
Taylor said all he wanted from his side was for them to be able to compete with a side which has come from playing a season of Big V basketball.
He was pleased with the early signs.
“Wodonga will clearly be a league power this year so to be as competitive as we were with such limited preparation was really pleasing,” he said.
“The areas we need to address are really fixable with some work and I’m excited to see this group progress and improve over the summer.”
The Panthers men’s side also faced the Wolves on Sunday.
After a slow start by the Panthers, they trailed by 16 points at the first break. They responded after that and only two points separated the teams in the last three quarters.
The Panthers lost 74-56.
Kane Molloy was solid with 19 points while Jaak Ponsford finished with 15.
