THE Swan Hill Lady Flyers were immediately thrown into the deep end, making their debut in the Country Basketball League with a travelling double-header last weekend.
Although the girls went down in both games, they showed promising signs which should provide them with added confidence for the rest of the season.
To improve, however, they will need to limit their turnovers and play a better level of defence to reduce team fouls.
Game 1 — Wangaratta
The Flyers’ CBL debut was a thrilling game that went into overtime against the Wangaratta Warriors on Saturday night.
Playing in front of a home crowd of nearly 200 supporters, the Lady Flyers fell short by just five points, losing to the Warriors 59 to 54.
Being just the team’s first game at CBL level, and the first game for many of the players since the local open competition last March, their skills were a little rusty and it took a quarter to settle into the game.
This was evident with early turnovers, fouls and few baskets scored, with the Flyers trailing the Warriors 17-7 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second period the Flyers’ game at both ends of the floor lifted, and they found scoring opportunities against Wangaratta’s zone defence and converted points in the open court.
With the points spread across the team in this quarter, the Lady Flyers were gaining confidence and momentum to trail by just four points (26-22) at half time.
The Flyers took the lead for the first time midway through the third through some great offence and back-to-back 3-pointers by Olivia Jones and a 2-point conversion by Maddie Jeans.
Our young guards, Laura Anderson and Kelsey Rowe, were tenacious in defence, causing turnovers and scoring timely, much-needed baskets.
Swan Hill’s overall foul count was 31 to Wangaratta’s 13, which meant the Flyers conceded 19 bonus points at the foul line, which contributed to their narrow loss.
Five girls fouled out late in the game and in overtime the Flyers had to finish off with just four players, enabling the Warriors to hold on and take the win at the final siren.
SCORERS: Swan Hill — Maddi Jeans 16 points, Olivia Jones 14, Tess Denham 7
Wangaratta — Carli Perso 18, Olivia Storer 15, Chloe Storer 10
Game 2 — Castlemaine
After their narrow loss on Saturday, the Lady Flyers traveled to Castlemaine on Sunday to play their second game against the Castlemaine Lady Cannons.
This was a much better start to the game than the previous night. The Flyers had more of an idea what to expect from teams playing in the CBL.
They were able to get points on the board through Jeans with seven early points, however they were unable to stop the Lady Cannons scoring 20 points in the quarter.
Katelyn Wright worked tirelessly on the Castlemaine bigs and contested every possession, along with Jeans contributing at both ends of the floor.
In what seemed to be a very even game throughout, the Lady Flyers did hit the front for a very short time in the last quarter, but the scoreline blew out to a 16-point deficit in the last four minutes of the game.
The game finished with this margin, with Castlemaine wining 74 to 58.
The Lady Flyers’ next game will be a home game in Swan Hill Friday 23rd October against the Echuca Pirates at 7pm.
SCORERS: Swan Hill — Maddie Jeans 20, Tess Denham 15, Kelsey Rowe 13
Castlemaine — Jess Mangan 27, Hannah Rifat 16, M Tong 13
