By JARROD POTTER
WNBL – ROUND 1 REVIEW
IT took a while to gather pace, but the Dandenong WNBL juggernaut reached full steam against Canberra in a season opening 80-72 victory.
A first-term fright left the Rangers trailing 10- 24 after the Capitals stormed ahead and left the visitors reeling in the season opener.
Dandenong’s defence couldn’t hold on to the elusive Capitals – who’d slip out of trouble in the dying seconds of the shot clock to punish the careless Rangers.
But despite the horror first term, it wouldn’t be a sombre trip back home as the Rangers lifted.
Turning a 19-point deficit back into the black was a team-wide effort after Sara Blicavs (four points) was fouled out of the game after 21 minutes on court.
It left the heavy lifting to the Dandenong bench, but throughout the pre-season, Rangers coach Larissa Anderson has believed the side’s depth was its biggest asset.
Dandenong slammed 15 points in a row in a devastating third-term run to leave Canberra in disarray.
It started with pure experience off the bench – Jacinta Kennedy (17 points, seven rebounds) made her WNBL return seem effortless as she shone under the ring in her first Australian-level match since the 2005/06 season.
“She was great – just showed her experience, was poised, took the right shots, got after the rebounds and just did a great job defensively,” Anderson said about her star centre.
Kennedy’s efforts under the ring alongside American import Annalise Pickrel (16 points, 13 rebounds) proved too much for the Capitals to negate, while Tenaya Phillips (17 points) and Rangers co-captain Steph Cumming (13 points) beat back the Capitals’ back-court best.
From there it was a matter of holding off Canberra’s last ditch offensive efforts to snare the eight-point triumph.
“I think basically the first quarter we were a bit nervous – played tentative basketball and didn’t really play our style,” Anderson said. “Took a while to settle in … but then second, third, fourth quarter the girls really found their feet and we found a group went on a 15-0 run in the third quarter to take the lead.
“We made some adjustments at half-time and during the third quarter and we found a group that really got it done – it showed a lot of character fighting back.”
Dandenong will host South East Queensland on Friday night in its first home match of the season and Anderson thinks the battle of the bigs will be one for the whole WNBL to keep an eye on.
“The SEQ team will be a lot bigger than the Canberra line-up we faced – in one way that’s a good thing for us but in another way we need to be a lot more disciplined up at both ends,” Anderson said.
“They’re going to be tough SEQ – they’ve had that early win against Bendigo and they run a very similar game style to us and it will be a very interesting match-up.”
Anderson enjoyed most of her debut WNBL match as coach and thought it was stellar to show the side’s ability so early in the year.
“It was great – I didn’t enjoy the first quarter – but I think everyone kept their nerve and it was great to have everybody there with us,” Anderson said.
“My coaching staff and the girls were really excited to get that first win, but the credit goes to such a new team and new coaching staff.”
