The Dandenong Rangers huddle together before Saturday night’s impressive win over the more fancied Adelaide Lighting.By Paul Pickering
IN A post-match confession to the home crowd at Dandenong Basketball Stadium, Rangers skipper Caitlin Ryan said what everyone else was thinking on Saturday night.
After a rousing 17-point victory over the Adelaide Lighting, Ryan grabbed the court announcer’s microphone to diagnose her team with a puzzling case of multiple personality disorder.
As Ryan acknowledged, the Rangers were unrecognisable from the group that suffered the dubious honour of becoming the Christchurch Sirens’ first Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) victim the previous weekend.
“If you’d seen that game (in Christchurch), you wouldn’t have believed it was the same team that played tonight,” she told the crowd.
If the 90-83 win was – as Ryan suggested – a far cry from some of the lacklustre performances Dandenong has offered this season, it was a cry that will echo throughout the league.
Proving that embarrassment is indeed a strong motivator, the Rangers were near flawless on their way to claiming their second victory over Adelaide in the space of a month.
For the first time this season, Dandenong coach Dale Waters got strong contributions from all of his starters.
Michelle Brogan (20 points, 11 rebounds) led the Rangers with typical poise and polish, while Larissa Anderson (18, 10), Shelley Hammonds (10, 7) and Emily McInerny (8, 5, three assists, two steals) were relentless in at both ends of the court.
Meanwhile, guards Ryan (15, 4) and Rachael Flanagan (10, 5) fought off full-court pressure to distribute the ball expertly throughout.
After leading the entertaining contest 69-65 at the end of the third term, Dandenong ran rampant in the last quarter to shake off the early season title favourite.
Reflecting on his team’s best performance of the season, Waters wore the smile of a man who had just glimpsed the immense potential of his charges.
“Defensively, we just gave up a little too much at times, but apart from that we were pretty much spot on,” he said, before explaining how a new offensive set had rejuvenated the Rangers.
“We did things a little bit different tonight,” he said.
“We started to play a bit above the foul line in a one-four set and just allow a little bit more room either side to create things for themselves.
“But we’re starting to move a bit better and connect better, so we’ve just got to make sure that we maintain that now and move forward to next week.”
No doubt that is a daunting prospect for the Bendigo Spirit, who the Rangers will host this Friday at 7.30pm.
