By Nick Creely
The Dandenong Rangers are going through an unwanted form slump right on the eve of finals, going down two nights in a row in bitterly disappointing fashion.
With the Rangers looking to cement their place in the finals, they had to first climb the mountain of a weekend on the road.
On Friday night the Rangers visited a champion Townsville side at their fortress, and were never really in the game, going down 83-66 after the Fire got off to a flyer.
The Rangers were uncharacteristically inaccurate in their shooting, going as low as 33-percent at some stages, before tidying that up in the final quarter.
The usual suspects, Sara Blicavs, Steph Cumming and Natalie Novosel all toiled hard, but were ultimately overcome by a powerful unit.
It was then on to Sydney to face league-leaders Sydney Uni Flames who came into the match in ominous touch.
But the Rangers were in the groove early and lead by four points at quarter-time and six at the major break.
The Flames then started to get their game up and running, but the Rangers continually had the answers, and led by six points heading into the last term – Steph Cumming and Ally Mallott had combined for 43 points.
But the game’s momentum completely switched in an instance, with the Flames completely running over the top of the Rangers 21-11 in the last-quarter, with the new premiership fancies stamping their authority over the match.
Cumming finished the game with a match-high 25 points, while Mallott shot 20 points – for the Flames, Belinda Snell was stellar, putting up 17 points, six rebounds and seven assists.
The Rangers, after three consecutive losses, must get back onto the winners board next weekend against the Lynx, in Saturday night’s home fixture at Dandenong Stadium.
