THE Swan Hill Lady Flyers have their first win on the board in season 2023 after defeating the Macedon Ranges Rockies by 10 points on Sunday.
While the women’s team secured their first points for the season, it was far from a successful weekend for the Flyers, with that victory being the only cause for celebration in a double-header roadtrip for both the men’s and women’s teams.
The Lady Flyers were made to work against the Rockies after a slow start saw them trailing the home side by 13 points at half time.
From that moment on, however, it was all one-way traffic, the Lady Flyers dominating the third period with a remarkable 16-point turnaround as Swan Hill scored 16 points to the Macedon Ranges’ three.
With the Flyers turning a 13-point deficit into a three-point lead at the final break, they went on with the job over the final 10 minutes, with a 24-point to 17 quarter giving Swan Hill a 58-48 victory.
Scarlet Grey led the scoring for Swan Hill with a team-high 17 points as Meg Rooney (12), Tamara Weiss (12) and coach Tess Denham (11) also reached double figures for the Lady Flyers.
The win followed a disappointing performance on Saturday evening when the Lady Flyers were no match for a dominant Bacchus Marsh Lions outfit.
The Lions controlled the match from start to finish, extending their lead at every quarter to run away commanding 114-35 winners.
Tamara Weiss was the only Flyer to reach double figures, scoring 10 points on a tough night for Swan Hill.
Swan Hill’s men’s team also faced off against Bacchus Marsh and the Macedon Ranges on the weekend but were unable to repeat their heroics of two weekends ago, losing both matches to leave them sitting seventh on the CBL North West men’s ladder with a one-win, three-loss record to start the season.
With head coach Steven Bowden and key players Lachlan Gardner and Lachlan Somerville missing, the undermanned Flyers were no match for Bacchus Marsh on Saturday evening, going down by 38-points.
Playing with just three players on the bench, the Flyers were outworked by their more experienced rivals, the Lions extending their lead with each quarter to eventually win 99-61.
Flyers young gun Seamus Doherty showed he will be a player of the future with his accurate shooting from in the key seeing him register a game-high 23 points for the match.
The return of Lachlan Somerville and Samuel Nitschke to the side for Sunday’s encounter with the Macedon Ranges Rockies didn’t have the desired effect, with Doherty’s absence leaving a hole too big for the Flyers to fill in the 92-73 loss.
Matthew Gardner worked hard to score a game-high 24 points while Somerville returned to the side with 19 points to be the only other Swan Hill player to register double figures.
The Flyers have the bye this weekend, with their next match to be played against the Mildura Heat at home on Sunday, November 5.
