By JARROD POTTER
WNBL – Round 14
WHILE the margin was massive, the context of Dandenong’s 95-64 win over Adelaide should not be undervalued.
Dandenong had the ball on a string from the get-go, charging out to a 28-8 lead at the first change following an early onslaught from Penny Taylor (15 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists). With chief play-caller Kathleen Macleod still a few weeks off returning from a knee injury, her absence gave plenty of opportunity for Endeavour Hills-based guard Aimie Clydesdale (13 points, 7 assists) to step up and show off her potential.
Clydesdale has made a seamless move from bench to starter in the last couple of rounds, as she proved again on Friday night she is a star on the rise in the midst of a breakout WNBL season.
In tandem with superstars Taylor and Cappie Pondexter (8 points, 10 rebounds) – Clydesdale ran the ball for 32 minutes on Friday night and almost snared a double-double as the Rangers started to rack up the points.
A 30-point half-time lead threatened to decimate the Lightning even further – as the Adelaide-based club seeks a new owner to ensure its survival – but to their credit, the visitors stopped a complete blowout emerging in the second half.
The likes of Laura Hodges (13 points, 9 rebounds) and Jenny Screen (10 points, 11 rebounds) valiantly held on to keep the margin near the half-time deficit, as Rangers’ coach Mark Wright went to the bench and tested a number of different strategies – including a ‘tall-ball’ variant with Taylor running the ball.
Also impressing for Dandenong in the runaway victory was Annalise Pickrel (19 points, 4 rebounds) – who was freed up from her usual centre post on Friday night to attack the wings as she drilled two three-pointers and went at over 50 per cent from the field. Tegan Cunningham (11 points, 7 rebounds) impressed off the bench as per usual, as she continues to dominate the ‘sixth-man’ position in the Rangers’ roster.
“Adelaide still showed that they have a lot of fight, even though they were down it didn’t feel like they were out of it,” Wright said.
“I think you give credit to Adelaide, not one stage did they stop going hard.
“It’s hard to be up by 30 and keep the same intensity up, but we held and didn’t go backwards which was really important… we got to play our bench and rest our starters towards the end, so it was good all round.”
Dandenong sits third on the WNBL ladder – two games clear of the three-way battle for fourth between Sydney Uni, Canberra and Melbourne – and will hope to maintain that buffer with a win over West Coast at home in the ABC Match of the Week, on Saturday afternoon from 3pm.
