Macleod makes mark

By Jarrod Potter
DANDENONG face the Sydney Uni Flames with a two-match winning streak, after knocking off the Bendigo Spirit 85-76, despite being battered and bruised along the way.
Early injuries to Jenna O’Hea and Krista Phillips forced the Rangers to work themselves into the ground to stay in front – led by Kathleen Macleod, who posted 36 points in a best on court effort.
O’Hea and Phillips were bench-bound before half-time, forcing coach Mark Wright to utilise the full extent of the Rangers’ roster and effectively use time-outs to give his best a break.
He needn’t have worried though, with Macleod playing the game of the season, hitting 14 field goals and seven free throws in her 36.
Macleod’s speed never waned, despite playing the whole match without a break allowed her to push past opponents and to draw fouls the opposition were unable to prevent.
With both teams over five team fouls, two successful free throws from Bendigo’s Kristi Harrower brought the margin back to 79-75 with 1.21 remaining on the clock.
Showing her mastery of the court, Macleod took 16 seconds out of the match before zipping past three Bendigo defenders to hit the two-pointer and draw a foul. She made the free throw and the Rangers were out to an 82-75 lead. Steph Cumming hit two more from the line to get the Rangers home by nine points.
In support of Macleod, Cumming played her best match at Dandenong this season, hitting 18 points and Tegan Cunningham and Louella Tomlinson stepped up in the backcourt to fill the void left by O’Hea and Phillips going down. Cunningham had 10 points and nine rebounds while Tomlinson made six points, but more importantly, made six blocks in the backcourt.
Brittany Wilkins, the Rangers’ American import, played her first minutes for Dandenong – getting six minutes of court-time to ease her back into top-flight basketball.
Wright said the injured pair were rested to insure they’d get up for this week’s match against Sydney and the gamble paid off.
“Both got quad strains early in the game,” Wright said. “We really didn’t have a choice, we couldn’t play them… Jenna tried, but couldn’t sprint. We rolled the dice and put the pressure on the other kids and they stepped up. They will be (playing this week) and that was the decision that had to be made. If we played them tonight (Saturday night), there was a big likelihood they could be out for four weeks so we shut that down straight away and fortunately it worked.”
Wright said he’s running out of superlatives to describe Macleod, who continually steps up for the Rangers at every opportunity.
“That kid took it upon herself to drag us kicking and screaming over the line… she was amazing.” Wright said. “She just takes it all on board. She takes criticism and accolades, she just doesn’t change. She delivers over and over again.”
The efforts of the all the Rangers, right through their depth, impressed Wright.
“I thought Louella Tomlinson was massive, Tegan stepped up, Steph Cumming was awesome… Brittany’s first game, I thought she battled hard. Gabe (Gabrielle Richards) is a formidable force and I think Louella handled her tremendously.”
The match against second placed Sydney will test the Rangers, but with the diligence shown in Saturday night’s victory, Wright believes Dandenong stand a good chance to defeat the Flames.
“They’re a smaller group who are loaded with scorers, so defensively I think this will stand us in good stead,” Wright said. “There are some big assignments next week with Poto and Snell and Ebzery. They’re all terrific scorers and they need to be shut down.”