Having re-signed with the Rangers for another two years, Dandenong coach Dale Waters and his charges will be looking to confirm up a play-off berth with a win this weekend.By Paul Pickering
AFTER the endless permutations and calculations of the last month, the play-off picture is finally clear for Dandenong in the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL).
The Rangers need only win one game in their Canberra double-header this weekend to shoehorn into the play-offs.
After crushing the hapless Perth Lynx 91-51 at Stud Road on Saturday night, Dandenong missed another opportunity to seal its own fate at Bulleen’s Veneto Club on Sunday, going down 67-59.
Rangers veteran Michelle Brogan was forced to sit out most of the game after rolling her ankle nine minutes into the first quarter.
And while Dandenong initially defied her absence to be up 32-28 at half-time, the Rangers shot 4-20 from the field in the third term to trail 48-42 at the last break.
Bulleen duo Emma Randall (15 points, 9 rebounds) and Elyse Penaluna (10) then took over in the fourth to keep the Boomers’ slim finals hopes alive.
For the Rangers, skipper Caitlin Ryan top-scored with 14 points to go with her 16 against Perth on Friday night.
While Bulleen’s victory saw it claim the Michele Timms trophy for the regular season series between the Melbourne rivals 2-1, Dandenong, with an 11-11 win-loss record, remains one game clear of the Boomers, the Townsville Fire and Bendigo Spirit, who are all 10-13.
Dandenong coach Dale Waters, who this week re-signed with the Rangers for another two years, resisted the temptation to use Brogan’s injury as justification for the loss.
“Losing her hurt us, but if we’re serious about being a finals contender we need others to step up and fill the void,” he said.
Waters is deadly serious about the Rangers being a finals contender, and he expects his players to adopt that attitude against the Australian Institute of Sport (8-15) on Friday night.
“At times when you face adversity, you’ve got the choice to either stand up or be shaky and have some self-doubt,” Waters said.
“When that’s happened we’ve allowed teams to get back into games and make a bit of a run at us.”
While those lapses have proven costly to the Rangers in the past fortnight, Waters is confident that his team can deliver under pressure this weekend.
“I’ve told the girls this week to enjoy the challenge,” he said.
“Let’s see who’s got some real character in the team and can pull it together.”
The Rangers would not want Sunday’s away clash with the reigning champion Canberra Capitals to become a do-or-die affair, but Waters believes his charges can mix it with the competition’s best.
“If we’re on song for four quarters I’m confident we can get to that (grand) final game,” he said.
“There’s some teams (inside the four) that will be pretty worried about us, but we’ve all just got to be on the same page.”
