By Marcus Uhe
A poor weekend for the Dandenong Rangers’ men’s side has seen one star suffer an injury and a pair of heavy defeats to leave them languishing at the undesirable end of the NBL1 South ladder after nine games.
On Saturday they were thrashed by a strong Sandringham Sabres outfit 74-103 at home, and lost Deng Puoch in the process.
Puoch appeared to injure his leg, hobbling to the bench after five minutes and immediately getting on the stationary exercise bike.
The star did not return to the game and did not suit up for Sunday’s contest with Eltham.
A topsy-turvy opening quarter saw the Rangers immediately fall behind 2-12 before taking the lead by the midway point of the quarter.
They took a three-point lead into the first break and matched their bayside opponents for the remainder of the half, before the contest begun to unravel after the long interval.
With 4.30 left in the third, the margin was just four points at 50-54.
The Sabres then blitzed the final four minutes of the period, scoring 19 points to seven, and led by 16 the final break.
If not for a Jesse Ghee three on the buzzer, it would have been 19.
Unfortunately for the Rangers, the fourth quarter was more of the same, outscored 17-30.
After quarter time, Samantha Woosnam’s side were comprehensively outscored 48-80 against a side boasting NBL talent in Dane Pineau and former Australian Boomer David Barlow.
So comprehensive was the loss that Puoch was the only player not to record a negative plus-minus differential due to his short time on the court.
Their attempts to dust-off the bad energies of the thrashing were unsuccessful on Sunday, this time going down by 23 against Eltham.
Dandenong was slow out of the gate, taking an 18-point deficit into the first break and failing to ever recover.
Eltham was on fire from beyond the three-point line early as they established a 21-4 lead midway through the opening term.
A pair of emphatic slam dunks on the fast break from Eltham stirred the crowd into a frenzy, to which the Rangers had no answer.
The score at the half read 29-56 in the Wildcats’ favour and grew to 39 late in the third quarter in what was fast becoming a beat-down that finished 99-76.
The women also suffered two losses but wore less significant wounds to show for them, losing by 10 against Sandringham and 20 to Eltham.
Another big weekend awaits next week, as they travel to Bendigo on Saturday and Waverley on Sunday.
