NBL1 South Round 7 Saturday Women’s Recap

Catch up on all the action from the final game of the NBL1 South Women's competition.

Launceston Tornadoes 82 def Mt Gambier Pioneers 79

The Launceston Tornadoes have outlasted the Mt Gambier Pioneers in a thrilling game on Saturday evening.
Missing superstar Keely Froling, the Tornadoes had to look elsewhere for scoring early in the game.
Mariah Payne answered the call throughout the game, leading Launceston in scoring with 30 points.
While Payne kept the Tornadoes in the game early, Mt Gambier leaned on a whole team effort to maintain its lead for the entire first half.
It seemed as though the Pioneers couldn’t miss for much of the first two quarters, as the visitors pulled ahead by as many as 12 points.
While Mt Gambier took a three-point lead into the main break, the momentum of the contest seemed to shift towards the home side in the second half, with D’Asia Chambers scoring some important baskets to tie the game, before the Tornadoes grabbed its first lead of the game off an Aishah Anis three-pointer.
Once Launceston took the lead, the side refused to give it up, leading for the rest of the contest and denying all of Mt Gambier’s attempts to pull back in front.
The exciting contest would ultimately come down to some clutch play down the stretch from Micah Simpson.
With less than two minutes left, Simpson scored or assisted on eight straight points for the Tornadoes to help secure the victory.
Mt Gambier never gave up the fight, hitting a pair of three-pointers in the final seconds to close the margin to just three points, however it came too late, with the Pioneers having to settle for one win and one loss over the weekend.