By Marcus Uhe
The Dandenong Rangers split the results of their road-trip to Ballarat on Saturday night 1-1 in the NBL1 competition, with the men not able to repeat the heroics of the women’s outfit earlier in the evening.
A stellar defensive performance saw the women hold their opponents to just 37 points en route to 76 of their own for a 39-point victory.
The Rangers scored the first seven of the contest and quickly found themselves in possession of a 12-point lead.
Nyadiew Puoch and Sarah Boothe led the charge for the visitors scoring nine and 12 points respectively.
Boothe was simply too big for her opponents, whereas Puoch used her speed and agility to slice through the defence with some smooth drives to the basket.
A three to Boothe on the quarter-time buzzer gave Dandenong a 25-8 lead at the first break which the hosts could never recover from.
So stringent was the Dandenong defence that the Miners scored in double figures in just one of the three quarters and only scored four points in the fourth.
The men on the other hand were not as frugal, falling 88-97.
A three-point shooting barrage from Ballarat separated the two men’s sides in the third quarter after an even opening half, in which Dandenong acquired a three-point lead at the long break.
The Miners’ first four baskets of the second half were all shots from beyond the arc, and within the first two minutes of the third quarter they had established a seven-point lead.
A pair of Jack Roberts baskets in quick succession cut the lead back to just three, and the two sides exchanged makes for much of the quarter.
But two threes in the final minute of the term meant Ballarat scored the final six points of the period, and the margin grew to 12 at the final break.
Roberts tried to match his opponents with a pair of threes of his own, but missed both, resulting in a 29-14 scoring discrepancy in Ballarat’s favour in the third term.
Where the Miners lived on the prowess of their shooters, Dandenong could only muster layups and two-point shots in the mid-range.
The Rangers would only have two players score in double in figures in Roberts (26 points) and Mike Amius (23), where four of Ballarat’s starters managed to eclipse that mark.
Dandenong next hosts Sandringham on Saturday night.
The women sit seventh on the table with four wins and three losses, whereas their male counterparts are languishing in 16th, having opened their season with a 2-5 win-loss ledger.
