Left: Dandenong forward Sam Woosnam drives on Canberra’s Tracey Beattie during the Rangers upset win at Stud Road on Saturday night.
By Paul Pickering
Below: Ranger Kath MacLeod clashes with Capitals guard Nicole Romeo. 58927 Pictures: Stewart Chambers
SURPRISED? Rangers coach Mark Wright wasn’t.
Saturday night’s 72-68 home win over reigning champion Canberra Capitals may have been Dandenong’s first big scalp of the season but, for Wright, is was only confirmation of what he already knew. His team is capable of anything.
Dandenong produced its most determined performance of its 2010-11 campaign in front of a packed house at Stud Road, coming from four points down at three-quarter time to overcome the ladder leaders.
They scrapped and fought against an imposing Caps frontline – with three players over 192cm – to record an unlikely 47-45 advantage in the rebound count, while keeping the star-studded visitors to just 35 per cent shooting from the field.
The previous game in Canberra had been a battle. The return clash was billed as a war – and it delivered.
The lead changed hands at every break but the Rangers, led by another brilliant all-round outing from point guard Kath MacLeod (13 points, nine rebounds, eight assists) had the last laugh.
“I think this is as tough and resilient as we’ve been,” Wright said afterwards.
“To come back (from a deficit at the last change) and get on top against a formidable team was very satisfying, but it’s not a big surprise to us.
“The fact is we thought we had their measure up there, and we backed it up and played a bit tougher down here.”
Wright was disappointed with Canberra coach Carrie Graf’s comments after the match, which suggested that the home side had got away with some roughhouse tactics in its bid to stifle the Caps’ talls.
“It’s like the bully in the schoolyard,” Wright said. “They don’t like it when it comes back their way.”
MacLeod and backcourt partner Jess Foley (14, 8) combined for 17 boards between them, capitalising on some strong boxing out from the Rangers forwards. Canberra’s towering trio of Suzy Batkovic (14, 7), Marianna Tolo (13, 9) and Tracey Beattie (4, 4) were unable to dominate the paint.
Dandenong skipper Abby Bishop (13, 8) found herself in early foul trouble, but got strong support from Tracy Gahan (12, 10), Sam Woosnam and Alison Downie at the defensive end.
Caps rookie Alison Lacey led all scorers with 16.
Wright seems confident that his team has overcome a pre-Christmas slump and is in good shape six weeks out from the post-season.
“I’ve always thought we were capable of matching it with the top teams, but I guess now the group has proven that,” he said. “I think now that we’ve gone smaller (after the release of import centre of Ashley Robinson), it’s made us a little bit more resilient and everyone understands where they fit into the group.”
The Rangers occupy the fifth and last finals spot at 9-7 for the season, but are breathing down the necks of Logan (9-6) and Bendigo (10-7).
Next up is Friday night’s away clash with Bulleen (13-2), which leapfrogged Canberra (14-3) into top spot courtesy of a win over Adelaide on the weekend.
Dandenong was without both MacLeod and Foley for its 87-75 loss to the Boomers in December and will take some confidence into the game at the Veneto Club.
The Melbourne derby is ABC-TV’s game of the week and will be shown from 1pm on Saturday.
