By JARROD POTTER
BENDIGO made it 10-wins-in-a-row against Dandenong, downing the Rangers 71-62 in a WNBL semi-final match dominated by the talls.
The Spirit conceded a 25-30 deficit to Dandenong half-way through the second term before their charges lit it up. A back-and-forth scoreboard eventually started favouring Bendigo as Kelsey Griffin (19 points, 16 rebounds) and Gabe Richards (13 points, 11 rebounds) owned the bottom of the basket following Dandenong’s centre structure succumbing to foul trouble early.
Kristi Harrower (14 points and 10 assists) lit up thes and launched the Spirit fans into rapturous applause with a long-range shot right as buzzer elapsed. Jenna O’Hea dragged the ball back down the court to launch two treys of her own, but by then the workload was too much for the Rangers to bring back. The reliance on O’Hea (16 points) hitting the threes was too great for Dandenong – as the ‘All Star Five’ guard made the only three threes of the match for the usually long-range-reliant Rangers.
Brigitte Ardossi (12 points, 4 rebounds) popped up for 10 points in the first term – on six-of-six from the free-throw line but all told the Rangers struggled to find its scorers or its much-needed three-point game.
Dandenong will face Townsville Fire next Sunday afternoon at Dandenong Basketball Stadium at 3pm. It will be a repeat of last season’s preliminary final where the Fire upset the Rangers in a 78-66 thriller.
Townsville pushed its way through to the preliminary final on the back of a nailbiting 78-73 win over the Melbourne Boomers with former Ranges Steph Cumming (9 points) and Rosie Fadljevic (3 rebounds) part of the success.
Former Rangers’ Cumming and Fadljevic will be on the other side of the ledger in this preliminary final, having played on the Rangers roster in 2012-13.
