NBL1 Women
Eltham Wildcats 86 def by Basketball Australia COE 90
Top performers: C. Schweers 22 points, A. Kunek 18 points, C. Brook 16 points
A special NBL1 Indigenous Round School Holiday Double Header was played on Friday night (Eltham High School) on the lands of the Wurundjeri people. We at the Eltham Wildcats would like to acknowledge that we play our sport on their lands and to recognise both elders past, present, and future.
The first quarter was completely dominated by Eltham scoring 26 to COE’s 19. Early performers from Chelsie Schweers making three 3’s and dishing out 3 assists. Additionally Maggie Mulligan, Alice Kunek and Chelsea Brook all hit the scoreboard.
As we come to expect Schweers hit two 3’s in the second quarter with one of them being an absolute bomb from downtown, Sian Gillam and Rihanna Barton (who also had notable defensive plays that don’t show up on the box score.) were standouts this quarter. COE’s Sara-Rose Smith and Kelsey Rees were the eye-catching players with both swinging the momentum towards COE.
In the 3rd quarter, COE’s bench was able to add some needed offence scoring 15 points to our 6, Mulligan and Kunek found some offensive rhythm while COE had a fantastic quarter with them having a total of 12 steals for the game and 7 of them were during this term. The star of this quarter was COE’s Kobe King-Hawea and as the name suggest she was consistently a threat offensively and adding some flashy defensive plays she set the tone for a tough matchup in the last period.
The 4th quarter was a dogfight and the downfall happened in a matter of minutes as Millie Prior grabbed an offensive rebound for a put back two points with the foul. The main concern was Eltham’s interior defence, COE scored 44 points in the paint compared to our 34 and out rebounded the bigger Wildcats line up.
NBL1 Men
Eltham Wildcats 87 def by Basketball Australia COE 91
Top performers: A. Doyle 24 points, D. Schaffert 21 points, J. Aver 13 points
Justin Aver was able to begin Eltham’s offence with a 3 pointer to start the game, the front court of McKay, Skyes and Magbegor got to the free throw line and grabbed big rebounds. COE struggled on the rebounds with only 8 in the quarter compared to Eltham’s 17 and 8 offensive rebounds, COE had a solid quarter from 3 making 37.5% of them while Eltham converted 61.5% from the line (8/13).
The 2nd quarter was the first showing of COE’s eventual gritty 4th quarter with Angus Glover making two 3’s with one being over our 7 footer Simon Bradbury. Glover had many outstanding plays throughout the game which allowed COE to really establish themselves offensively. The guard off COE’s bench Tamuri Wigness had a striking impact in this quarter facilitating with 3 assists and 4 points in this term.
Eltham’s defence stepped up in the third quarter while Justin Aver and Adam Doyle continued knocking down perimeter shots. David Schaffert had an impact in this quarter as he knocked down numerous shots on his way to a 21 point game.
Mitch Lee was influential all game but was unappreciated by the statistical side of the boxes score, being a lead passer and being a player that had to be guarded really allowed Adam and David to mix-up the offence through mostly guard play. Dave Schaffert after the game spoke to me about their chemistry and said “we often just link eyes” which was obvious during this term. As to what we expect Josh Sykes demonstrated his alien like athleticism able to block a shot a good 7-9 feet in the air, McKay was fired up with a rebound over 3-4 players on COE he exclaimed ‘LET’S GOOOOOO’ but his extreme efforts weren’t enough to stop Wigness and Glover from both making 3 after 3. Those two finishing the game with a combined 47 points with their captain Hunter Clarke making a couple 3’s as well to finish the game.
