Cover image - Trent Moore
One of the greatest streaks in Australian sport was ended in NBL1 South last week. After 33 games unbeaten, the Bendigo Braves women finally suffered defeat after a full calendar year of tasting nothing but victory.
A resurgent Sandringham side was responsible for handing Bendigo the historic loss, who opened the final team on a 15-0 run to outscore their heavily fancied opponents by 20 points in the last quarter to walk away as six-point winners.
Although the Braves still packed plenty of star power into their team, they were without WNBA hopeful Amy Atwell for the clash, and NBL1 South expert Jamie Hamilton believes the “stars aligned” for the Sabres to emerge victorious.
“I was cautiously optimistic about this game. Everyone was highlighting how big of a matchup their game against Keilor is going to be, and that’s going to be a huge game, but that’s not until the last game of the season. You had to expect a loss was eventually going to come,” Hamilton said on the NBL1 South Podcast.
“No Amy Atwell – she’s off trialing for the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA and we wish her the best of success, and believe she deserves to be there and it wouldn’t surprise many, if any, if she ends up on that Mercury roster.
“It was a storm in a teacup, it was the stars aligning perfectly, and it just so happened it was the Sabres who were there and still had to play unbelievable basketball and score 32 points in that final quarter, which is their second-highest scoring quarter of the year.
“Everything just had to be perfect and it was. Full credit to the Sabres, they played really, really well across the entire weekend.”
Atwell’s absence did little to influence Bendigo’s rampant offense in the early stages of the game, as Alex Wilson and Megan McKay ended the game with a combined 60 points, while Kelly Wilson finished with an incredible 13 points, 10 rebounds, 14 assists and five steals.
Hamilton identified two players in particular who stepped up for the Sabres in the victory. Funda Nakkasolgu on the offensive end, and Juna Umezawa on the defensive end.
Nakkasoglu top-scored for Sandringham in the victory with 24 points, while Umezawa was crucial in quietening McKay in the late stages of the contest.
“Funda Nakkasoglu had a massive game, Juna Umezawa has really started to come into her own and got her feet back under her, so it was always going to be that fourth quarter that was the most important,” Hamilton said.
“The first three quarters the Sabres kind of hung around, and they were down 14 at three-quarter time but there was still hope, trust me, the Sabres team was full of hope.
“[Bendigo] couldn’t figure out who was going to be that main person for them because previously it had been Amy Atwell, especially on the odd occasion, the going got tough for Bendigo, ‘give the ball the Amy Atwell and she’s going to find a way to score six, eight, ten points on her own’.
“They were going to Megan McKay who had a really good game, but Juna Umezawa who was the staple of that defence right under the basket was creating a fair few problems for her and for Bendigo.
“I really think the stars aligned for the Sabres on Saturday night … getting that win and doing so in the fashion they did was absolutely massive and has really kickstarted their season in a crucial part of the year.”
The Sabres will next be in action on Saturday, May 4 at 5pm AEST when they take on the Melbourne Tigers.
