Above: Rangers coach Dale Waters was left ruing a missed opportunity. By Paul Pickering
THE Dandenong Rangers missed a golden opportunity to stake their claim on a final playoff spot in the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) on Friday night, suffering an agonising 63-57 overtime loss to the Canberra Capitals.
In a bizarre night of WNBL action, Dandenong’s main competitor for the fourth finals berth, the Bendigo Spirit, also went down in overtime against the Townsville Fire.
So while the Rangers are still in the box seat, that knowledge was of little comfort in the minutes following Friday night’s game, as coach Dale Waters berated his players for letting the match slip through their fingers.
For the first 25 minutes the Rangers (10-10, fourth place) presented themselves as legitimate title contenders, outplaying and out-hustling the defending champion Caps (16-6, second) to establish a 12-point lead midway through the third quarter.
With Emily McInerny locking down on Canberra’s leading scorer – and former Ranger – Jess Bibby (7 points), it seemed the Caps would struggle to find the artillery to hurt Dandenong.
But just as Nat Hurst (20) stepped up to take over the game for Canberra, the Rangers took an equally emphatic step backwards.
Struggling with the Caps zone defence, Dandenong would go ice cold to score just six points in the last quarter on 3-15 shooting, leaving Michelle Brogan (11, 11 rebounds) to force the game into overtime with a put-back two in the dying moments.
Not even that could spark the Rangers into action though.
They went scoreless in the extra period, missing all five free-throw attempts while Bibby and Tully Bevilaqua (12) converted theirs to ice the game for the Caps.
In the end, Larissa Anderson had 12 points and Caitlin Ryan 11 for the Rangers, while Hurst’s 20 points were complemented by a huge night on the boards from Abby Bishop (8, 17)
For a frustrated Waters though, it was the one that got away.
“They’re disappointed because that was a game we should have won on our home court, and we let them get back into the game,” he said, lamenting an inexplicably stagnant offense after halftime.
“We probably played our best half of the season in the first half tonight – against the reigning champions.
“But we didn’t reward ourselves for effort because we stopped doing the little things that established the lead.”
While other results continue to fall Dandenong’s way, the Rangers will be looking to take control of their own destiny this weekend in a crucial double-header against Perth and Bulleen.
While they will be expected to make light work of the last-placed Lynx (4-17) at home on Friday night, the match-up against Bulleen (9-12, sixth) at the Veneto Club on Sunday is shaping as a season-defining clash.
