By JARROD POTTER
BACK-TO-BACK preliminary final losses have been inflicted on Dandenong by Townsville with the Fire off to Bendigo for the WNBL grand final after a 74-71 win.
It all came down to the last 18.5 seconds as Dandenong had the ball at the half-way line. Former Ranger Steph Cumming proved pivotal as she negated Alice Kunek from making any shot to level the scores.
Dandenong had not been in front since late in the first term, but Jenna O’Hea (27 points) took them back to level pegging with 1.12 minutes remaining in the match.
The last rolls of the dice had Mitchell and Kayla Pedersen (2 points, 10 rebounds) miss with a shot clock violation before Kunek and Cumming clashed with Townsville emerging victorious and advancing to the last match.
The crowd went wild as Pedersen was called for a foul reaching in on Batkovic – with the pre-eminent centre making one of her free throws to give Townsville the lead.
Dandenong butchered its shot early as they shot 12/36 in the first half – leaving only Alice Kunek (15 points and 6 rebounds) and O’Hea with any reasonable numbers to their name early.
Mark Wright went to his talls in the first term as Brigitte Ardossi (5 points, 6 rebounds) rattled off five first-half rebounds and importantly hassled Suzy Batkovic (13 points and 16 rebounds) and forced two early fouls on Townsville’s premier centre.
Townsville looked a different lineup with Batkovic on the bench, a seven-minute spree from the end of the first through the second reaped a 15-2 advantage to the Fire as Alex Wilson (7 points) and captain Rachel McCully (13 points) seized on the small-ball advantage.
Jenna O’Hea fired towards a double-double following a first half spree of nine points, three assists and a pair of rebounds.
Her second half started as strongly – taking nine points in the first five minutes of the premiership quarter.
O’Hea looked to drag her team mates back into the game – levelling the scores to start the second half as she sunk a long-range three-pointer to give Dandenong a much-needed boost.
The tides turned as Leilani Mitchell (15 points, 4 assists) found her form at the right time – hitting Alison Downie (8 points) for an assist.
Mitchell found her spirit at the right time – with the New York Liberty guard making the play-of-the-day – stealing off an unassuming Suzy Batkovic with seven minutes left in the match, leading to the field goal and free throw to take the lead 59-58 early in the fourth term and sunk a huge three-pointer to make it 62-62 with 4.38 minutes left.
Mitchell reeled off nine points in the fourth term and was pivotal in the Rangers last quarter offence.
It leaves Dandenong eliminated from the WNBL finals race for the second year in a row at the second last hurdle.
Former Dandenong Rangers Steph Cumming (15 points) and Rosie Fadljevic (two points) will advance to the grand final with the Fire against the Bendigo Spirit at Bendigo Basketball Stadium on Sunday from 3pm, with the match televised on ABC1.
