Youth Women
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Round 4
Eltham Wildcats 67 def McKinnon Cougars 57
Top Performers: A. Burrows 17 points/10 rebounds, S. Fell 14 points/10 rebounds, E. Davies 10 points
The Eltham Wildcats Youth Women have won their first game of the 2021 Big V season with an impressive performance against the McKinnon Cougars on Sunday afternoon. A 20-8 opening period set the tone for the game as the Wildcats hit shots early which got their confidence up combined with a great defence effort saw them playing at a high level.
After the intensity dropped off in the second quarter letting the Cougars back in the game, coach D’Wayne Hogan encouraged his group to pick up the intensity.
“I told them to keep doing what we were doing well to start the game, focus on defensive effort because the harder we defend the more offensive opportunities it will create for us.”
The Wildcats changed up their defence in the second half which discombobulated McKinnons offence then applied heat on the Cougars defence by getting to the line 26 times.
“We continued to explore the paint by dribble penetration and post touches rather than settling for three point shots,” said Hogan.
Winning both the third and fourth periods the Wildcats secured their first of many wins to come in the 2021 Big V season.
The Youth Women head to Casey on Saturday to play the Cavs at 4pm.
Youth Men
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Round 4
Eltham Wildcats 76 def by Dandenong Rangers 82
Top Performers: A. Bandilovski 15 points/5 steals, T. O’Connor 11 points/8 rebounds, O. Magbegor & K. Agosta 9 points
The Eltham Wildcats lost their first game of the 2021 season on the road against the Dandenong Rangers on Saturday night. After a close first quarter the Rangers hit their stride in the second period outscoring the Wildcats 27-18 as the dynamic duo of J. Spencer & R. Simmons scored at will for Dandenong.
Eltham turned up their defensive intensity in the third period and came out firing as they fought their way back into the contest to find themselves only down 5 points to start the final quarter.
Ovie Magbegor tied the game up with a 2 point basket with only four minutes remaining but things went south from there for the Wildcats as they missed their next 5 shots and turned the ball over numerous times allowing the Rangers to secure a 6 point lead that Eltham were unable to overcome.
Eltham Wildcats 80 def McKinnon Cougars 76
Top Performers: K. Agosta 21 points/8 rebounds, O. Magbegor 16 points/13 rebounds, Z. Cunningham 16 points
Bouncing back from a tough loss the night before the Wildcats came to play in the first half on Sunday afternoon against the McKinnon Cougars. Eltham hit the court with high energy defence that turned into transition offence utilising half court traps while the red hot shooting from K.Agosta helped secure a 44-32 halftime lead.
The Cougars came out with some ‘fight’ in the third period, they fought hard on the glass, executed their offence and took it right up to the Wildcats finding themselves only down by 4 points to start the fourth and final period. The momentum remained with McKinnon as they took the lead early in the period but the home crowd helped the Wildcats wrestle momentum back as they began to execute and finish plays down the stretch while ‘dodging some bullets’ in the final minute of the game to get the win.
