The Southern Tigers have held on with a bunch of clutch plays as they won the inaugural NBL1 Central Womens 87-77 over the North Adelaide Rockets at the St Clair Recreation Centre.
The X-Factor for the Tigers in Bianca McCalop started with two triples and along with Jemma Thacker pushed them out to a 10-0 start. Tia Bails then drained a triple before Morgan Yaeger got going followed by a Thacker triple for an 18-5 start. With five straight triples to the Tigers it took Jess Good with two triples in a row to snap the momentum, but veteran Tara Dodman drained another triple to leave both teams with ten triples in the opening stanza as it stood 29-22 with the Tigers up at quarter time.
Teige Morrell started with two in the second before Shannon Webber drained her first triple of the night. Webber next play collided with a Tigers player and injured her knee and after a lengthy delay looked like she would take no further part in the game. The Rockets fired up by the incident, hit back through Ortlepp and Good. Izzy Stratford then grabbed the and1 to take the Tigers back out to double digits. Sam “De-Fran” Francesco flipped up the ball and scored the and1 on the next play, Morrell then hit double figures with her tenth point and then sent back a Rockets player with a huge block. Bails then hit back with her third triple of the night before the Halls Medallist dropped and1 for her ninth of the quarter as her influence started to over-flow further and further with her as she guided her Tigers to a tight five-point lead 46-41 at the half.
Good started the third with a block in the first few minutes on Morrell with the Rockets showing that they would not yield the pressure pushed on the Tigers before half time. Thacker was hit with her fifth foul early in the half and she would see no more action in the game as both teams were down a player for the remainder of the night. A 0-6 run to the Rockets and they hit the front 46-47 with timeout burnt by Matthew Clarke of the Tigers. Denelle Fawcett broke the run with a bucket before Yaeger nailed a big dagger followed by Fawcett and Madi "Mouse" Round causing a 7-0 run. Fawcett dropped another triple before De-Fran dropped yet another and1 for both sides. Morrell came back into the lineup and immediately impacted with seven straight points before Yeager drained another dagger to have them out by nine points 66-57 with one pulsating quarter to go.
Ortlepp got a very user-friendly roll on a triple while Bails was putting on the jets for her side but Morrell followed suite dropping back-to-back buckets. A savage blow for the Tigers occurred when Yaeger picked up an offensive foul and that was her fifth; her night done with 18 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists. Fawcett stepped up to the main handler role and knocked down a deuce, Round then drained a triple before Ortlepp grabbed the and1 and looked like the pivotal figure that would get her Rockets back in the match. De-Fran got another user-friendly role for a triple before McCalop drained a timely triple. Ortlepp splashed another triple of her own before Fawcett drew Good her fifth foul and another player left the floor for the night. Fawcett drained a couple more crucial charity stripe trips to get into double figures in a match turning veteran contribution. The Southern Tigers eventaully overwhelming the Rockets to claw their way to their second championship in their new era and eighth overall in club history 87-77.
The MVP of the Grand Final was Teige Morrell with 27 points, 16 rebounds and 4 assists and understandably for her to complete the triple of MVP, Halls and Grand Final MVP; she was overwhelmed. “It feels unbelievable we’ve been together for three years it means so much to us as a group, its amazing. When they announced I got MVP I really didn’t think I had that many.” Stopping Jess Good’s (16 points and 11 rebounds) influencing heavily was a part of the Tigers gameplan naturally and Morrell described how tough the task was, “(Jemma) Thacker did a great job on her until she fouled out.” Morrell also highlighted the vital contributions of McCalop and the veteran experience of Fawcett, “I said to her to use that experience when she came in for Morgan (after her foul trouble) and she delivered on that,” Morrell shared.
Coach Matthew Clarke could not wipe the smile from his face with what the Tigers had built, “I’m just excited, it’s a real thrill to win such a close game with such adversity and in the end we found a way. Our experience in Denelle and Tara (Dodman) really helped when we needed it at times tonight, we didn’t think much about our loss in the ABC last season we focused on this year and found a way and for that I am so proud of our group.”
Coach of the Rockets Brenton Johnston was disappointed with the result and pointed out the start causing the team to play catchup. “Our first quarter made it a lot of hard work for us to comeback into it and they kept going, they played awesome for four quarters, and we took a little while to get going. We called a timeout after that 21-5 run and told our players to relax and calm down and to chip away like it was a marathon rather than a sprint. 2018 we won it then 2019 I had the year off, so we’ve built it back and the team is back at a strong base to be back in finals; it’s a long-term program to do that.”
Taylor Ortlepp (28 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists) threatened to take the game away from the Tigers and despite the loss was pleased with the strides her side made in the season late. “We really made a great run at the end of the season with five people all gelling on the court which made us much more of a threat offensively. Tia was a hard worker and she’s one of the hardest workers in our team, she hit some big time shots.”
The Tigers win is their first since the 2017 Grand Final win over the Rockets and ends their season with a W-L record of 18-2 as inaugural champions of the NBL1 Central Womens Competition.
Southern Tigers 87 (Morrell 27, Yaeger 18, McCalop 12, Fawcett 11) defeated North Adelaide Rockets (Ortlepp 28, Good 16, Bails, Defrancesco 13)
