NBL1 North Recap | Friday Women's Round 8

The Logan Thunder remained undefeated while the Cairns Dolphins won big on the road and the Mackay Meteorettes enjoyed their homecoming in Friday night Round 8 NBL1 North Women's action.

The Friday night Round 8 action began with the Logan Thunder maintaining their undefeated record to open the NBL1 North season with the 94-78 victory at home to the North Gold Coast Seahawks.

Danielle Bayes delivered a huge performance off the bench with 30 points for the Thunder while Lauren Jansen and Doniyah Cliney both had 18 points for the Seahawks.

Cayla George sparked the Cairns Dolphins to a flying start on the road to the Darwin Salties and they were never headed from there to end up winning 94-49.

George finished with 28 points and 17 rebounds for the Dolphins with Amy Lewis adding 23 points and 10 assists. Chelsea Brook top-scored with 15 points and eight rebounds for the Salties.

The Mackay Meteorettes enjoyed their return home on Friday night to beat the Townsville Flames 77-70.

Miela Goodchild finished with 21 points to lead the charge for Mackay despite the 34 points on five triples for Townsville from Steph Reid.

Round 8 in the NBL1 North competition continues on Saturday evening at 5pm with the Brisbane Capitals taking on the Southern Districts Spartans, and Ipswich Force taking on the Northside Wizards.

Then at 5.30pm on Saturday, the Rockhampton Cyclones host the Townsville Flames and the South West Metro Pirates are at home to the North Gold Coast Seahawks. Finally at 6pm it is the Gold Coast Rollers up against the Red City Roar.

The Round 8 action will then wrap up on Sunday afternoon with Red City Roar at home to the Brisbane Capitals and then the Sunshine Coast Phoenix hosting Ipswich Force.

NBL1 NORTH – 2022 WOMEN'S SEASON
ROUND 8 – FRIDAY NIGHT

LOGAN THUNDER 94 defeated NORTH GOLD COAST SEAHAWKS 78

The Logan Thunder overcame a slow start to end up beating the North Gold Coast Seahawks by 16 points at home to keep their undefeated record this season rolling.

The Thunder were back at home at Bendigo Bank Cornubia Park Sports Centre for the Friday night contest putting their perfect 2022 season record on the line, and that looked in serious jeopardy early doors.

The Seahawks scored the opening nine points of the contest before eventually the Thunder got on the board with a three-pointer from Carla Drennan.

From there Logan was able to work its way on top to dominate the rest of the first quarter and end up leading 29-22 by quarter-time.

The Thunder did open up a lead by as much as 12 points during the second term, but to North Gold Coast's credit they stayed in touch and limited Logan's lead to 48-41 by the half-time break.

Logan began to pull away further in the third quarter to lead by as much as 16 and to be on top 70-54 by three quarter-time with their unbeaten record looking secured.

That was the case with the home team ending up winning 94-78 to improve to 8-0 on the season while the Seahawks are now 5-4 following the defeat.

The three-point shooting was the major difference between the two teams with Logan hitting 14/34 from downtown at 41.2 per cent while North Gold Coast made 5/18 at 27.8 per cent.

Danielle Bayes delivered quite the standout effort for the Thunder in the win. Coming off the bench and playing just 23 minutes, she put up 30 points including going 6/15 from three-point territory.

Ashley Taia added 18 points and three rebounds while hitting 4/6 from deep with Mikaela Ruef finishing with 16 points and 23 rebounds, Chevannah Paalvast 10 points and seven assists, and Carla Drennan seven points and four dimes.

Doniyah Cliney produced an impressive performance despite the loss for the Phoenix finishing with 18 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Lauren Jansen added 18 points, six rebounds and three assists, Katelyn Donovan 16 points and five boards, Erin Riley 11 points and three assists, and Isalys Quinones nine points and six rebounds.

DARWIN SALTIES 49 lost to CAIRNS DOLPHINS 94

The Cairns Dolphins made a fast start on the road to the Darwin Salties on Friday night and turned that into an eventual 45-point victory.

The Dolphins travelled to Darwin Basketball Stadium to open Round 8 in the NBL1 North competition on Friday night, and with Cayla George leading the charge, they were able to start impressively.

When Teyahna Bond had knocked down a three-pointer and Amy Lewis hit a pull up jumper, Cairns had come to Darwin and opened up a 16-2 lead already seven minutes into the contest.

That set the tone for the rest of the evening with the Dolphins ending up leading 23-12 by quarter-time.

Cairns put up another 30 points to nine in the second period and with George having 19 points in the first half, the Dolphins had opened up a commanding 53-21 advantage.

From there the Dolphins were able to cruise to the eventual 94-49 victory to improve to a 6-3 record on the season while the Salties are 3-5 in their maiden season in the NBL1 North competition.

It was a dominant performance from Cairns on a number of fronts including on the boards as they pulled down 57 rebounds to 39. 

Shooting was also a marked difference with the Dolphins going at 44.6 per cent from the floor and 43.8 per cent from downtown while the Salties managed just 25.7 per cent from the field and 20.7 per cent from three-point range.

Cayla George put together another standout all-round performance for Cairns finishing with 28 points, 17 rebounds, seven assists and four steals while connecting on 5/9 from three-point territory.

Amy Lewis also hit five triples for the game for the Dolphins on her way to 23 points, 10 assists and five rebounds with Penina Davidson contributing 13 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two assists.

Teyahna Bond also had 11 points and five assists, Alessandra Burke 10 points and five rebounds, and Leichan Williams six points and six boards.

Chelsea Brook fought hard for Darwin to finish with 15 points and eight rebounds with Teyla Evans contributing eight points and six boards, and Tyla Cubillo seven points.

MACKAY METEORETTES 77 defeated TOWNSVILLE FLAMES 70

The Mackay Meteorettes returned home and held off the fast finishing Townsville Flames to record the seven-point win on Friday night.

On the back of their three-game road trip last weekend and having played six games away from home over the past three weeks, the Meteorettes enjoyed getting back to the comforts of home on Friday night at Mackay Basketball Stadium.

They played host to the Flames in Round 8 of NBL1 North but it was a tight and entertaining opening stanza with Townsville narrowly leading 22-21 by the end of the first quarter.

It was Mackay who was able to make a break during the second quarter going on a run of nine consecutive points to lead by as much as six, and be on top 45-39 by the half-time break.

The Meteorettes pulled away further on their home floor in the third term with another 18 points to 11. That helped the home team lead by as much as 16 points and still be in control 63-50 by three quarter-time.

The Flames didn’t give up the fight and made a couple of brief charges in the fourth term, but it wasn’t to be and the Meteorettes held firm for the 77-70 victory.

The result improves Mackay to an 8-4 record on the season while Townsville is now 6-2 following a second defeat of the 2022 season.

Meila Goodchild finished the evening with 21 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals for Mackay while nailing three of her team's four triples of the game.

Grace George added 13 points, nine rebounds and four assists for the Meteorettes, Alisia Jenkins 12 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals, and Shaneice Swain 12 points, nine assists and four blocked shots.

Steph Reid produced a huge performance for Townsville despite the eventual loss with 34 points, nine assists, five rebounds and three steals on the back of going 5/8 from three-point land.

Courtney Woods added 20 points and five rebounds, and Grace Rodgers seven points and eight boards for a Townsville team who fought valiantly with just the six players hitting the court.