Amelia Todhunter and Julia Tan face off in the Dandenong Rangers’ overtime victory against the Knox Raiders. 64679
By Jarrod Potter
Dandenong Rangers took two wins from their SEABL double-header against the Knox Raiders, with the women winning in overtime and the men working hard for a 10-point victory.
Rangers women defeated cross-town rivals Knox Raiders 81-79.
The match was heated from the start with shoving and many fouls defining the first half, with the Rangers going up, 36 to 31.
The nastiness continued in the third quarter, with both sides continuing to foul and making heavy contact.
Rangers’ Clare Papavs and Hope Terdich took big hits from the Raiders in the third term as the Rangers held firm. At the final break, the Rangers were behind, 52-55.
Orders for court positioning were being shouted by both sides, with Sam Woosnam (Knox) and Amelia Todhunter (Dandenong) directing traffic in the tightly contested last quarter.
The score stayed 63-62 for a couple of minutes with four consecutive turnovers locking the game up. Steph Cumming broke the deadlock, pushing the score to 66-62, before the Raiders levelled the game at 66 all with 33 seconds left.
The shot clock ticked down to 3.3 seconds as Cumming nailed a two-pointer, nudging the Rangers forward 68-66, before a Knox time-out was called. The ball went to Knox, passed to Sarah Graham, who beat the buzzer to tie the match 68-68, forcing overtime.
As if the fourth quarter was on repeat, the scores tied again with a minute left in overtime. When Dandenong was down by six points with two minutes remaining, Cumming hit back-to-back three-pointers to bring Dandenong back to level pegging.
Rangers took the shot clock to 28 seconds before Todhunter struck to push the game to the final margin. Amy Denson had the chance to seal the game on the buzzer, but missed the shot as Dandenong took the hard-earned two-point win.
Cumming was best on court for the Rangers, shooting five three-pointers in her 20 points, while Amy Denson hit 25 for Knox.
In the men’s encounter, the first quarter was marred by a heavy knock to Knox’s Lester Strong, forcing him from the court.
He returned in the second half, but by then the Rangers had asserted themselves on the scoreboard and pushed out a comfortable 87-77 margin by the final siren.
Dusty Jura scored 20 points for the Rangers and Andrew Harms and Luke Fitzgerald scored 18 each.
