Youth Women
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Eltham Wildcats 69 def Geelong United 57
Top Performers: K. Ferronato/K. Mountford 13 points, A. Burrows/E. Davies 11 points
The Eltham Wildcats Youth Women have won their fourth game of the season on the road against Geelong United on Saturday night. After a close first half the Wildcats coaching staff preached defensive effort in the halftime break and the team responded putting United under pressure with their half court trapping defensive forcing turnovers and outscoring Geelong 21-14 in the quarter led by an offensive outburst by K. Ferronato who netted 11 points.
Eltham maintained that momentum in the last quarter once again outscoring the home side 17-11. Meg Stagoll was instrumental in the win filling the stat sheet (7 rebounds/8 assists/5 steals) while solid contributions from the whole team solidified the Wildcats second consecutive win of the season.
Coach D’Wayne Hogan said “there is a positive vibe around the group, we never conceded and stayed persistent and it turned our way.”
Eltham can still make the finals but with the next three games against the top teams Coach Hogan and the team have plenty of work to do.
“We are going to focus on one game at time and keep challenging ourselves to get better everyday.”
The Youth Women take on the Sherbrooke Suns this Saturday night at Eltham High School, tip off 6:00pm. Tickets are now available via: https://www.trybooking.com/BSXNN
Youth Men
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Eltham Wildcats 68 def by Nunawading Spectres 83
Top Performers: O. Magbegor 11 points/11 rebounds, Z. Cunningham 10 points, N. Dillion 9 points
In a 2019 Grand Final rematch the Wildcats have once again come up short to a well drilled Nunawading Spectres outfit on Saturday night at Eltham High School.
The visiting Spectres took control of the game from the start as J. Mutimer nailed a three point basket 17 seconds into play to ignite Nunawadings offence. From there the Spectres kicked away to a 21-12 first quarter performance and then winning the second and third periods heading into the final 10 minutes of play with a 26 point lead. Eltham put some respect in the score line winning the final quarter 27-16 to only still go down by 15 points.
Eltham Wildcats 77 def Hawthorn Magic 75
Top Performers: A. Bandilovski 19 points, N. Dillion 14 points, T. O’Connor 14 points/10 rebounds
There was no time to waste pondering about a bad performance the night before as the Youth Men quickly had to back it up on Sunday afternoon against the Hawthorn Magic at Boroondara Sports Complex.
Eltham started well outscoring the home side 20-13 in the first quarter but then hung on for dear life as the Magic won the second, third and fourth periods as the game would come down to the final seconds of play to determine the winner. With two minutes remaining in the contest the Magic took the lead for the first time and appeared to take the momentum and possibly the game as they hit big shot after big shot. The Wildcats responded to everything Hawthorn threw at them as Bandilovski & Whelan hit crucial shots to level the scores while Ovie Magbegor came up with the game winning go ahead two point basket with only 20 seconds remaining to win the game.
Eltham have won three out of their last 9 games and now in real danger of dropping out finals contention as they sit in 6th spot in the Terrill conference with a 10-8 record.
The Youth Men will play the Knox Raiders this Saturday night at Eltham High School, tip off 8pm. Tickets are on sale now via https://www.trybooking.com/BSXNN
