Rangers take best of three

By Jarrod Potter
THE Dandenong Rangers came away with two wins and a loss from weekend matches in the South East Australian Basketball League.
The Rangers men had two matches, taking a 94-80 win on Friday night against the Ballarat Miners and a 109-82 loss to the Nunawading Spectres on Saturday
The men were too strong for Ballarat, with Andrew Harms, Venky Jois and Luke Fitzgerald dominating both ends of the court. Ivan Harris for the Miners tried his best to stop the Rangers, with 18 points and six rebounds, but his efforts weren’t rewarded by the rest of his team as they were overrun by Dandenong’s finest.
Harms was once again the livewire up forward, taking 26 points, four rebounds and four assists in the win against Ballarat, with Fitzgerald (17 points, 11 rebounds) and Jois (12 points, seven rebounds) rounding out the best performers.
On Saturday night, the Rangers men were matched by the Spectres in the first half, trailing 51-46 at half-time. In the second half, Nunawading jumped Dandenong to sink home third and fourth quarter scores of 28 and 30 compared to the Rangers’ 15 and 21.
Harms and Dusty Jura held back the Spectres’ best, with the former taking 19 points, seven assists and four rebounds and Jura accumulating 16 points, nine rebounds and four steals.
The results from the weekend place the Rangers men fifth in the East ladder of the SEABL, with an 8-9 win, loss record. The Rangers are away to Canberra on Saturday night.
IN the Lady Rangers’ only match for the weekend, they routed the Spectres 73-39, as the return of Elyse Penaluna and Steph Cumming boosted Dandenong’s depth and proved too much firepower for Nunawading.
The Spectres jumped the Rangers in the first quarter, taking a 15-13 lead, before the Rangers hit back in the second, scoring 21-9. The second half was much the same as Dandenong continued to push out their lead, as Nunawading was halted in offence due to the strong defence applied by Penaluna, who had eight defensive rebounds, and Probst, with five steals.
Clare Papavs led the scoring for the Rangers with 16 points, ably assisted by Hope Terdich (14) and Steph Cumming (12).
The Rangers women travel to Tasmania to face Hobart on Friday night.