Rangers drop ball- Dandenong coach Dale Waters is looking towards next season after back-to-ba

By Paul Pickering
THE Dandenong Rangers are back in the doldrums, just one week after recording the most emphatic victory in WNBL history.
Dandenong lost to the cellar-dwelling Australian Institute of Sport on Friday, before lowering its colours to sixth-placed Sydney University the following night.
Ironically, it was former Dandenong juniors Liz Cambage, Rachael Jarry and Stephanie Cumming who inflicted the most pain in Friday night’s boilover.
The home-grown trio combined for 48 points and 21 rebounds to guide the students to their second win of the season.
Cambage (27 points, five rebounds) – a 203cm second-year sensation – waged a brutal and entertaining battle with Rangers centre Jenni Benningfield (30, 7) throughout the night, while Jarry (14, 7) and Cumming (7, 7) looked equally determined to make a statement.
Dandenong led by a single point at the last break, but the ’Tute rallied to snare a memorable victory in its last home game of the season.
It was a bitter-sweet result for Rangers coach Dale Waters, who is hoping to welcome the AIS trio back to Stud Road over the next 18 months.
“I suppose that was the only pleasing thing, that it was three Dandy girls who played so well against us,” Waters said, before hailing Cambage as the game-breaker.
“We didn’t have anyone to combat her size.”
Backing up against the Flames on Saturday night, the Rangers led by as many as seven points during the third quarter, but faded badly in a 9-23 final term.
Benningfield (16, 10) again played a lone hand in the paint for the Rangers, with back-up centre Caitlin Cunningham managing just seven minutes after rolling her ankle the previous night.
Meanwhile, Flames forward Rhonda Price (18, 6) and pivot Lindsay Pluimer (10, 8) provided the inside presence to complement Alicia Poto’s (25) penetration.
Waters was not surprised that his under-sized troops “hit the wall” in the final quarter, with guards Nicole Hunt and Caitlin Ryan carrying chronic injuries into the match.
Hunt (knee tendonitis) will play no further part this season, while Ryan (shoulder) is facing post-season surgery.
Waters has already begun plotting an aggressive off-season recruiting campaign.
“We need to get a couple of experienced, marquee players into our group,” he said.
“Because we’ve been asking young and inexperienced players to make experienced plays – week-in week-out.”
Dandenong’s most experienced player, Emily McInerny, will farewell the Stud Road crowd against Bendigo on Saturday night, before playing her last game in front of a sell-out crowd in Hobart on Friday 20 February.