By JARROD POTTER
ONE match, one win.
It makes a strong start to WNBL life for Dandenong coach Larissa Anderson, who commenced her WNBL coaching career on the right note for the former WNBL 250-game player.
Making the coaching leap from SEABL – where she has won four championships in her five campaigns – Anderson returned to the league where she made her mark as a player last Saturday in her WNBL coaching debut … Dandenong’s round 1 clash against Canberra.
It took a while to gather pace, but once 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 onto 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 – with Jacinta Kennedy, Annalise Pickrel and Tenaya Phillips all shining in the eight-point win.
Dandenong slammed 15 points in a row in a devastating third-term run to leave Canberra in disarray.
From there it was a matter of holding off Canberra’s last-ditch offensive efforts to snare the round 1 triumph.
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.”
“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 hosted 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.
