NBL1 West Recap | Women's Semi Finals

There were two terrific Women's NBL1 West semi-final battles on Thursday night with the Mandurah Magic and Willetton Tigers ending up prevailing to book in preliminary final berths on Saturday.

Week 2 of the NBL1 West finals series got underway on Thursday night with the two semi-final match ups with the winners of the two matches to move into preliminary finals on Saturday to determine the Grand Finalists for 2022 next Friday night.

It was the Warwick Senators and Joondalup Wolves awaiting to find out who they would be playing in the preliminary finals, and neither semi-final match up was decided until the dying stages on Thursday night.

The evening's action got underway at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre with the two local rivals locking horns with the Mandurah Magic hosting the Rockingham Flames.

The Flames pulled a shock by having Perth Lynx point guard Tayah Burrows hit the floor for the first time this season, but the Magic proved too much on their home floor going on to win 77-72.

Hannah Little delivered 19 points and nine rebounds in the win for Mandurah with Carly Boag adding 16 points and 13 boards, and Sarah Toeaina 15 points and seven rebounds.

Mehryn Kraker did all she could to lift Rockingham into a preliminary final with 37 points and seven steals.

The other semi-final took place at Willetton Basketball Stadium and after a tremendous contest all evening, the defending champion Willetton Tigers did enough late to escape with the 103-98 victory against the Cockburn Cougars.

Emma Gandini delivered 15 points in the first quarter and 22 to half-time in her 200th game for Willetton to finish with 31 points while Desiree Kelley also celebrated her 200th appearance with 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Alex Sharp added 30 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for the Tigers while Jessie Edwards had another 32 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots for Cockburn.

The preliminary finals will now take place on Saturday night with the Warwick Senators hosting the Mandurah Magic while the Joondalup Wolves take on the Willetton Tigers. The winners will play off in next Friday night's Grand Final at Bendat Basketball Centre.

NBL1 WEST – 2022 WOMEN'S SEASON
SEMI FINALS – THURSDAY NIGHT

MANDURAH MAGIC 77 defeated ROCKINGHAM FLAMES 72

Local rivals the Mandurah Magic and Rockingham Flames battled over keeping their NBL1 West seasons alive on Thursday night, and it turned out to be an understandably tough and tense battle.

There's certainly no love lost between the Magic and Flames and in the last decade they have had a host of fascinating finals battles with Mandurah making Grand Finals in 2017 and 2018 and Rockingham winning championships in 2014, 2015 and 2019.

Mandurah had the rights to host the semi-final at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre on the back of finishing the regular season in third position before an 11-point qualifying final loss last Friday night against the Joondalup Wolves.

Rockingham, meanwhile, brought winning form into the semi-final having beaten the Lakeside Lightning on the road in a thriller last Saturday night after finishing the regular season in seventh position.

The stage was set for a terrific contest between the heated rivals and Rockingham pulled a shock with the availability of Perth Lynx WNBL point guard Tayah Burrows for her first game of the season to help offset the loss of Taylor Ortlepp with the start of the AFLW season.

The Magic got off to a flying start with Carly Boag hitting their opening seven points and in contrast her twin sister Christina picked up two early fouls for the Flames.

The Magic were able to turn that into a 25-14 lead by quarter-time before building the lead to as much as 13 points before the Flames were able to work their way back into the contest led by Mehryn Kraker.

The Flames went on to outscore the Magic 17 points to 11 in the second term to cut the Mandurah lead to 36-31 by the half-time break.

Mandurah managed to open up a double-figure lead once more throughout the third quarter and while Rockingham kept fighting, they could never quite overcome that bump to hit the front.

Every time they threatened the Magic had the answers even though a Kraker triple and Burrows layup did make it a four-point ball game late in the piece. 

They couldn’t quite get closer, games record holder Casy Mihovilovich hit a late free-throw and Mandurah won 77-72 to advance to Saturday's preliminary final with the Warwick Senators as she tries to lead the Magic to an eighth Grand Final as they continue to chase that elusive championship.

Hannah Little might have had a horror night in the qualifying final for Mandurah shooting 0/12 from the field, but she came up huge in the semi-final win with 19 points and nine rebounds on 6/9 shooting to go with 7/8 at the free-throw line.

Carly Boag had a strong impact inside too for the Magic with 16 points and 13 rebounds while Sarah Toeaina contributed 15 points and seven boards, and Alex Wittinger 10 points, nine rebounds and three assists.

Casey Mihovilovich added six points and five assists, Aimee Brett six points and four assists, and Rachel Halleen five points.

The rollercoaster season of Rockingham came to an end but Mehryn Kraker did all she could to lift the Flames on Thursday night finishing with 37 points and seven steals on the back of shooting 14/22 from the field.

Tayah Burrows marked her one and only appearance of the season for the Flames ahead of another campaign in the WNBL with the Perth Lynx by playing 19 minutes for 10 points and six assists.

Patty Brossmann also contributed nine points, 11 rebounds and four steals, Christina Boag six points, 11 rebounds and four steals, and Paris Duffield five points, two assists and two steals.

 

WILLETTON TIGERS 103 defeated COCKBURN COUGARS 98

It was another battle of local rivals in the other semi-final on Thursday night in the NBL1 West with the reigning champion Willetton Tigers playing host to the Cockburn Cougars.

The Tigers have been the standout women's team in the SBL/NBL1 West competition winning nine championships including in 2021 but it's been a bit of a rollercoaster season for the reigning champs in 2022.

However, they still finished the regular season in fourth position to earn a finals double chance which they needed after losing the qualifying final last week to the Warwick Senators.

That meant they played host to the Cougars at Willetton Basketball Stadium on Thursday night with Cockburn on a roll having finished in fifth position with three straight wins and then defeating the Perry Lakes Hawks in the elimination final.

However, the Cockburn women have yet to reach a Grand Final in the SBL/NBL1 West competition so it was a battle of teams with contrasting histories with their season on the line on Thursday night.

It was the Tigers who made a flying start and fittingly the two first baskets were scored by Emma Gandini and Desiree Kelley who were both celebrating their 200th games with Willetton.

Willetton soon led 9-0 before eventually Cockburn scored inside thanks to Jessie Edwards and once the Cougars steadied into the contest, it was a tight battle the rest of the way with neither team wanting to see their season come to an end.

The Tigers still led 29-22 by quarter-time and were back up 11 during the second quarter, but the Cougars kept in touch and kept Willetton's lead to 54-45 at the half-time break.

Both teams turned it on offensively in the third quarter combining for 62 points and at one point that saw the Willetton lead grow to 18 points, but the Cougars hit back to keep in touch.

Cockburn then opened the fourth quarter scoring the opening seven points to close to within four and set up a big finish.

Edwards scored inside once again for the Cougars to make it a two-point game with less than six minutes on the clock.

Kat Tudor knocked down a triple soon after to make the margin one and she made another not long after to give Cockburn the lead and all the momentum with just over for minutes remaining.

A couple of more strong makes inside for the visitors from Edwards saw Cockburn keep that momentum going to lead 96-92 and the onus was back on the Tigers to avoid the defending champs bowing out in straight sets.

Last year's MVP Alex Sharp scored two quick buckets including converting one into a three-point play to put Willetton back in front a minute later.

In the end, it was the most unusual three-point shooter Sam Lubcke who hit the biggest shot of the night. The Tigers centre stepped out and pulled the trigger to knock down the three ball with 21 seconds to go to put Willetton up 102-98.

The Tigers went on to win 103-98 from there to book in a preliminary final clash with the Joondalup Wolves on Saturday night at HBF Arena while the season is over for the Cougars.

Emma Gandini had quite the memorable night to celebrate her 200th appearance for Willetton. She put up 15 points in the first quarter, 22 in the first half and the dual Best Defensive Player finished with 31 points to go with six rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block while hitting 6/10 from three-point territory.

Fellow 200-gamer Desiree Kelley also had 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists for the Tigers while 2021 MVP Alex Sharp produced 30 points, 10 boards and six assists on 11/17 shooting.

Sam Lubcke also had 14 points, nine rebounds and three assists, and Sophie Doran 11 points and eight assists.

Jessie Edwards produced another strong inside showing for Cockburn finishing with 32 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots on 14/20 shooting as she now turns her attention to the WNBL season with the Perth Lynx.

Alina Hartmann finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds and three assists too for the Cougars on the back of shooting 9/13 from the field and 4/5 from three-point land.

Jewel Williams contributed 18 points and 12 assists, Kat Tudor 14 points, Haylee De Sousa six points, four assists and three rebounds, and Kirsty Whitfield four points, three assists and two boards.