Rangers bow out of finals

By Paul Pickering
DANDENONG’S dream run in the Big V league came to a nightmarish end on the weekend, when the Rangers bowed out of the playoff race in both Championship divisions on consecutive days.
First, Dandenong’s dominant Championship Men had their Big V three-peat aspirations quashed by Sandringham 82-78 in a one-off preliminary final on Saturday night.
The Rangers lost star import Vince Inglima to a serious ankle injury in the first quarter, and, despite a courageous attempt to return to the floor, he never recovered.
Inglima hobbled through the beginning of the second term, but finally conceded after playing just 15 minutes of the game.
Dandenong did take a five-point lead into the final term, thanks largely to Ash Cannan (25 points), but the Inglima’s absence left a gaping hole in the vaunted Rangers frontline.
Gun big man Brent Hobba (12) was also below his best, perhaps burdened by the responsibility of picking up the slack on the boards.
The Rangers were forced to go small, but their perimeter shooters failed to stretch the Sabres’ suffocating zone defence in the last quarter.
Having led by as many as nine points in the final term, Dandenong could only watch as the Sandringham frontline of Simon Conn (19, 13 rebounds), David Moore (17, 11) and Jermaine Maybank (15, 10) overpowered the favourites in the dying minutes.
Rangers’ coach Warren Dawson was shattered.
“When you put your heart and soul into something and come up short…it’s fair to say the team and everyone involved with the team is devastated,” Dawson said.
While Dawson refused to use Inglima’s injury as an excuse, he lamented a 53-28 deficit on the boards that stemmed from a lack of tall options.
In his frank assessment of the season, Dawson noted that the Rangers had failed to live up to their own lofty standards.
“When I reflect on the season, I thought we played well at times, but I don’t think we played anywhere near our potential,” he said.
“Whether the two years of success that we’ve had meant that we were in a bit of a comfort zone, I don’t know. But I didn’t think we were sharp.”
With the Rangers cast aside, Sandringham will now play Melbourne in the grand final series.
In the Championship Women’s division, Dandenong suffered an equally grim fate in their semi-final series against Waverley, losing back-to-back games on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
The Falcons, who had lost all four previous encounters with Dandenong this season, bounced back with a stunning 71-69 overtime win in game two.
While star Falcon Kathleen MacLeod (18) was again at her best, Dandenong WNBL player Larissa Anderson (11, 8) was the hero for Waverley.
Anderson sunk a three-point bomb with 20 seconds left in the final term to force the game to an extra period.
For the Rangers, Faith Probst’s (22, 11) brilliant individual performance went unrewarded.
In Sunday’s decider, Dandenong took a 47-38 lead through three quarters, only to be overhauled in the final term, losing 54-51.
Coach Michael Davies, who will now step down from the role after six years, was denied a fitting farewell.
“I’m gutted. I thought we had a real crack at it this year,” Davies said, before noting that the Falcons simply had more firepower.
“It was Kathleen (MacLeod) and Larissa (Anderson) who did all the scoring for them, so their studs really stepped up in the end and proved their worth.
“With respect to our players, we don’t have anyone of that calibre.”
With the uncertainty surrounding Dandenong’s future in the Big V league, it is likely to be an eventful off-season at Stud Road.
A move back to the South East Australian Basketball League has been mooted, but that decision will hinge on discussions with Basketball Victoria over the coming weeks.