Above: Steph Cumming on the way to the basket in Dandenong’s loss to Logan.
By Jarrod Potter
THE Rangers face a depleted Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) team on Sunday, with AIS captain Rebecca Cole going under the knife for a knee reconstruction.
Cole, 19, will miss about a year after damaging her right knee at training this week, compounding pressure on the AIS which sits at the bottom of the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) ladder after an 84-60 drubbing.
Dandenong go into the match with a full squad, except Brittany Wilkins, who is four to five weeks off returning from a knee injury of her own.
The AIS has three Dandenong Rangers juniors in their squad, with Tenaya Phillips, Carley Mijovic and Rosie Fadljevic lining up in the familiar surroundings of Dandenong Stadium.
Dandenong goes into the match against the AIS following a late-game collapse against Logan – squandering a 61-47 lead midway through the third quarter to get overrun by the Thunder in the 87-80 loss on Saturday night.
The Rangers were outscored 40-19 in the last 14 minutes of the match, with Thunder rallying behind three-point shooters Kristen Veal and Sarah Graham, who helped the Thunder hit 10 threes for the match.
Dandenong’s hard work was undone by their lacklustre ball-handling, conceding 21 turnovers to 11.
Kathleen Macleod (18 points), Jenna O’Hea and Krista Phillips (17 points each) lead the way for the Rangers, while Veal had 20 points for the night in a best-on-court performance.
Rangers coach Mark Wright said the errors Dandenong made and the successes Logan created were the difference between the two sides.“Pretty simple really we had some average turnovers at the wrong times and Logan shot the ball back pretty well at the right time,” Wright said.
“We had control for most of the match, but they did it down the stretch and we didn’t knock it down when he needed to.
“With a minute to go we were only two points down.
“Logan showed at this point of the season they played better as a team than we did.”
The usual suspects of Macleod, O’Hea and Steph Cumming were highlighted by Wright, but said the girls will kick themselves for giving away too many turnovers.
“Kathleen and Jenna had too many turnovers but they’d be first to admit they made too many fundamental errors,” Wright said.
Preparations for this week’s match will focus on reducing the turnover count and stopping the high number of fouls, with the Rangers giving away 22 fouls in each of their matches this season.
“Clearly there’s a lot to do,” Wright said. “Statistically we had 10 more turnovers than Logan.
“We’ve got to reduce the amount of unforced turnovers.
“We’re fouling too much and need to stop putting hands in and fouling too quickly.”
