Wonthaggi Coasters' triumph

WONTHAGGI Coasters women’s team claimed the spoils in the Country Basketball League (CBL), winning the grand final on February 12, in its first season in the competition.

The Coasters triumphed in the Gippsland region section, seeing off the challenge of the Traralgon T-Birds to win by 11 points in the decider, with the T-Birds having comfortably defeated Wonthaggi in the sides’ two previous meetings.

Wonthaggi saw its 7-point quarter time lead whittled away, eventually facing a 1-point deficit at the final change.

It responded with a whopping 29-point final stanza, with the Traralgon side managing 17 points for that period.

“We were able to finish strongly and get some easy scores in transition in the last quarter to pull away,” Coasters coach Lincon Morris said.

The February 12 match was played in T-Bird territory, at the Gippsland Regional Sports Stadium in Traralgon.

In a high-scoring, entertaining affair, Alana McRae was electrifying for the victorious Coasters, with her 26 points a major contributor to the side’s 78-67 win.

“Alana led the team really well, and she played awesomely, defensively as well as offensively, and when she was open she just knocked shots down,” Morris said.

That included five three-pointers.

McRae’s committed approach to the contest eventually resulted in her being fouled out of the game in the dying stage of the game.

It was a McRae show in offence with the other sisters, Grace and Hannah, evenly splitting a further 26 points between them. Grace topped the competition’s scoring for the season.

Morris praised his team’s defensive effort.

“As a team, we got a lot of rebounds,” he said.

Gemma Thomas and Kelly O’Neill were a couple of major contributors to the team’s success in that department, helping win plenty of offensive rebounds, and both made significant contributions on the scoreboard.

In a fair but feisty contest, fouls proved commonplace, with the sides combining for 46 for the game.

Morris said the refereeing was of a high standard.

That infringement tally was somewhat inflated, with the T-Birds deliberately fouling a number of times late in the game in the hopes the Coasters wouldn’t capitalise on their shots from the free-throw line.

“It didn’t stand out to me, the foul count, and it wasn’t a big factor,” Morris said.

“As both teams tire you usually get more fouls and it was a fairly up-tempo game.”

Morris explained that Wonthaggi’s fast game style tends to get the side into foul trouble.

“We play assertive (basketball), always playing hard defence,” he said.

Grace McRae, Stacey Poke and Gemma Thomas finished with four fouls a piece for the victorious Coasters.

On the other side of the battle, the T-Birds had two players fouled out, Sienna Privitera and Emily Scholtes, with Tanarly Hood finishing with four fouls.

A quartet of T-Birds shot double-digit points tallies, with Samantha Labros leading the way with 16 points.

Laura Vannapraseuth managed 12 points, with Scholtes accumulating 11 points before her send off, and Joanna Watson managing 10 points.

Labros’ efforts as a point guard won praise from opposition coach Morris.

“She never gave up, worked hard all game,” he said.

Scholtes also impressed Morris, as did another teenage T-Bird Asha Nightingale.

Both held their own against older and more experienced opponents.

Morris said the Coasters triumph came as a surprise to many.

“We started from scratch and a lot of the girls hadn’t played competitive representative basketball since they finished the under 18s” he said.

The Coasters depth was tested during its opening CBL campaign.

“We didn’t really have our whole team on the court until the last two games of the regular season, and then the semi and the grand final, because of Covid and player unavailability,” Morris said.

Others stepped up to help out, and younger players took on the challenge of extra minutes on court while some of the experienced players were missing.

With experienced players returning, the Coasters recorded big wins over Korumburra and Maffra in their last couple of regular season games, scraping into the finals.

Another meeting with Korumburra in the semi final proved a tough and physical affair, with Wonthaggi coming out on top by just 3 points.