Alison Downie takes the aerial route to the basket in the Rangers SEABL championship victory. 70730
By Jarrod Potter
DESPITE star centre Elyse Penaluna suffering a severe knee injury with five minutes left in the grand final, the Dandenong Rangers rallied to take a 65-59 win over the Knox Raiders to capture back-to-back SEABL championships.
Penaluna went down holding her left knee with 5.24 remaining, later revealed to be an anterior cruciate ligament tear, with the scores favouring Dandenong 56-54.
The Rangers centre had been dominant in the game to that point, hitting 19 points and taking 11 rebounds.
Coming off the bench, Dandenong’s Hope Terdich and Alison Downie stepped up to fill Penaluna’s position in the dying minutes to help account for Knox’s talls Emily Fryters and Amy Denson.
Despite duck whistles, kazoos and various taunts by the Knox crowd creating a wall of noise, Clare Papavs sank two free throws from six attempted to push the Rangers to 63-57 in front with 1.02min left.
Knox took the ball with Sarah Graham and Denson trying to find an opening, but Denson’s shot missed.
Faith Probst took the rebound and passed off to Steph Cumming, who hit the clutch basket to take the match to its final six-point margin.
Knox had the lead at the first two quarter breaks, leading 18-13 and 32-29 before Dandenong surged back into the game with a strong third quarter.
Hannah Kaser’s three-point buzzer beater before half-time created a run on for Dandenong, with the Rangers shooting 18-14 to take a one-point lead at the final break.
Denson, who the Knox supporters were chanting ‘MVP’ for every time she took a shot, had 22 points and 11 rebounds to cap off her great season.
Dandenong coach Larissa Anderson was elated with the victory, but saddened at the same time about Penaluna’s injury.
“The biggest thing on my mind is that Elyse has done her ACL,” Anderson said. “It’s quite devastating for her, so we wish her the very best throughout her recovery.
“She had 19, 11 (points and rebounds) and was looking very strong at that stage. She was a big highlight throughout the game for both good and bad reasons.”
Anderson highlighted the efforts of Clare Papavs, the winner of the Barb Barton Medal for grand final MVP, who had 18 points and six rebounds.
“Clare was great from the first possession,” Anderson said. “Other than a few missed free throws at the end, which she is kicking herself over now, she was great at both ends and did a great job on Sarah Parsons.”
Across the board the Rangers were impressive.
“Faith Probst showed why she was defensive player of the year,” Anderson said. “Denson is always tough, but she’d be the first to admit Probst restricted her shooting. She didn’t shoot as well against us in other games, so Probst definitely had an impact.
“Amelia (Todhunter) was probably a little bit flat but, as always, came out in the fourth and laid two massive baskets and did great at defence. Aimee Clydesdale and Amanda Hobba did well, and for Aimee to show the poise she did was great. They were all great. I got everyone in (Dandenong’s best).”
The Rangers defensive pressure was what stood out for Anderson, able to keep Knox to only 59 points, when their season average is 79.14 points per game.
“It wasn’t the best offence we played, but to keep Knox to under 60 points, it showed the girls got it done on defence,” she said. “On offence we were a ratty a few times; we gave away 23 turnovers which was frustrating.”
“To the girls’ credit, they worked their arses off right to the end of the game.”
On the chance of back-to-back-to-back, Anderson said the girls are using that as a benchmark.
“Don’t think anyone has done a three-peat in SEABL history before, so the girls are looking forward to trying for it.”
