Women’s Grand Final Preview: Southern Tigers v North Adelaide Rockets

When: 5.30pm (ACST), Saturday September 11

Where: St Clair Recreation Centre, Woodville, Adelaide 

Broadcast: Kayo Freebies, www.nbl1.com.au

The last time
North Adelaide Rockets 70 (Ortlepp 22, Good 15) defeated the Southern Tigers 46 (Morrell 16) – Round 18 at “The Launch Pad” The Lights Sports and Community Centre

They had to upset the top of the table Southern Tigers but with their first place already secure the North Adelaide Rockets came up with the win 70-46 to take them into the Elimination Final the next weekend against the South Adelaide Panthers at the Launch Pad. Jess Good setup the win in the first half as she dropped another double double 15 points and 13 rebounds with Taylor Ortlepp adding 22 points and 4 assists. Teige Morrell capped a mammoth regular season with 16 points and 18 rebounds to lead a team minus star guard Morgan Yaeger.

How they got here

The Southern Tigers have taken the straight path through coach of the year Matthew Clarke as it took two of the five NBL1 Central All-Stars to book the first spot in the 2021 Grand Final with an 82-70 win over their rivals the South Adelaide Panthers at the Cage in week two of the finals. Morgan Yaeger finished with 29 points, 16 rebounds and 4 assists to lead all comers while the Halls Medallist Teige Morrell backed up with another double double of 21 points and 12 rebounds and 6 dimes to round out her game. The Tigers come into this Grand Final with a 17-2 record across the season however will understand it won’t be an easy job by any means against the team that is historically been the best women’s team of all time in the North Adelaide Rockets. The Tigers have had a strong three years under coach Clarke having made the Adelaide Basketball Challenge Grand Final last season but coming up short to the Sturt Sabres; a loss they will be keen to turn around no doubt.  

The Rockets magic run across the post-season started with a gigantic performance from Jess Good gifting them a stunning elimination final victory as they toppled the Forestville Eagles at the Nest 64-76 in week one of the finals. Good was the lynchpin through the night with the Eagles not able to find an answer as she gave the blues to the home sides rebound count. It was a string of seven consecutive offensive rebound opportunities for Brenton Johnston’s women that killed the Eagles momentum and despite some late Basham triple heroics, Good put her stamp on the game and shut the gate with a string of clutch free throws sending her Rockets flying through. Good dropped a bacon double double of 29 points, 20 rebounds with 4 assists and 10-14 from the charity stripe and got big support from Taylor Ortlepp with 17 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.

They then knocked out the Sturt Sabres in straight sets with its 71-80 victory at the Cave. The Sabres got out to 6-0 start before DPOY Good hauled them back in offensively. The game was evenly poised needing someone to take over it 60-57 in favour of the homes side at three quarter time. It was Adelaide Lightning’s Ortlepp who got her team going with an influential opening three minutes to the final stanza and some more Shannon Webber magic with an and1 and a triple to continue a flawless shooting night for her. Ortlepp finished with 22 points, 5 rebounds and assists who along with Jess “who was so Good early” (20 points and 16 rebounds) when the game was on the line stepping up along with the cameo from Webber with a perfect 15 points and 6 rebounds.

The Rockets continued their amazing post-season run from fifth place as they booked themselves a spot in the 2021 NBL1 Central Womens Grand Final with a thrilling preliminary final win 72-76 over the South Adelaide Panthers at what could be the final game at the Shed on Michael Ah Matt Court. Both Good and Olivia Thompson went toe to toe as the DPOY and All-Star set up a thrilling finish. The key moment was when Thompson spun Courtney “Chook” Hansen inside out to level 70-70 before Hansen hit back next play with her own and1. Ortlepp then drew the contact and showed she was cool at the line with the first then the second as the Rockets grabbed a 70-74 lead with 31.8 to go. Spencer missed the triple but Thompson hauled in probably the biggest offensive board of the night as she wrestled it from two Rockets defenders hands and put it off the glass 72-74. The Panthers won the ball back with some pressure as it came down to the last seconds.

Hatti Cox missed the deuce to tie before Good hauled in a huge defensive rebound to go to the stripe, Good made the first then the second, Hunter with a long shot to try and draw the unlikely four-point play resulting in the Rockets continuing their 5-0 rampant run through the NBL1 Central finals and into their first Grand Final since the Premier League 2018. Ortlepp finished with 23 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists and Good 13 points, 17 rebounds and 4 assists however the biggest additions of the night were from “Chook” Hansen with her first double double of the season 13 points and 13 rebounds and the blitzing second half of Sam “De-Fran” Francesco with 14 points and 6 rebounds. 

Two very different paths with one straight through to the decider and a week off, the other fought every week and have a coach who is the “Ironman of the North” Brenton Johnston has taken this team to the final game in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and now 2021.              

Championship history

The Southern Tigers championship success is sometimes mistakenly said to be just the one however the history says differently. The Tigers first was when they were the Glenelg Tigers aligning with the SANFL club when they won back-to-back titles in 1978 and 1979. They then won titles as the reformed Noarlunga City Tigers winning three championships in a row through 1984-1986 against non-other than the North Adelaide Rockets. In fact history shows the Tigers have played the Rockets in seven of their Grand Finals since 1984. The Noarlunga City Tigers amalgamated with the Adelaide Southern Suns (which came from the Adelaide Giants A.S.K and Southern Districts) to become the club we know today as the Southern Tigers in 2003. The Tigers have had many famous names involved in their teams including Julie Nykiel, Debbie Smyth, Leanne Mickan, Kay Flynn, Carla Boyd, Jenny Cheesman, Donna Quinn and Michelle Brogan to name a few of several household names that came through the Tigers ranks. In total the Tigers women have won six championships and as we can see have a much storied championship history than perhaps known by this generation of followers of the NBL1.     

On the other side is the most successful women’s club in state league history which won their first title in 1957 then added another twenty championships to make it twenty-one total. The Rockets have regularly featured in the decider and have a proud history of producing some star players and notable names including current assistant and former Adelaide Lightning player Jo Hill, Debbie Copley (Freer), Vicki Daldy, Pat Mickan, Marina Moffa and Belinda Wilson. The last victory in a Grand Final was the farewell to Hill (29 points and 11 rebounds) after an undefeated season as she retired after the 2018 victory dismantling the Forestville Eagles with a 15 point last quarter to give her side one last contribution 79-61.   

The last time these teams met in the Grand Final was 2017 which was the Southern Tigers first title as Southern 61-65 which contained a mammoth extra minute’s match from Hill as she finished with 17 points, 14 rebounds at 44 years of age!!! Mollie McKendrick led the way for the Tigers with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists and one of the Tigers taking place in this Saturday’s decider in Jemma Thacker gave some big minutes with 12 points and 2 blocks.

Let another chapter of The Tigers versus the Rockets story commence and be added this weekend…    

The Stats

- The Southern Tigers are dominating clearly in several areas in the competition and are number four or above in PPG (78.2), 2PP (52.1), 3PP (30.2), FT (70.1), offensive (14.1), defensive (31.4) and total rebounds (45.5). The area the Tigers are low in is assists (13.9) and steals (7.2) which suggests that if the Tigers have a small chink it is that when a player gets the ball they often do in isolation plays and also won’t force too many errant turnovers and rely on their ability to dominate the glass to gain multiple possessions of the ball. In their semi-final they did however have 18 assists almost five more than their season average.   

- The North Adelaide Rockets have their formula for finals getting to the charity stripe on average 25 times per game and dominating the rebounds averaging 51.6 including 14.3 offensive rebounds per post season game. Add to that the assist count of 15.3 per game and you have a dangerous team that is firing on all cylinders in key areas coming into the decider.  

- The Tigers have four of the top 50 ranked players in the competition in Teige Morrell (#3), Morgan Yaeger (#11), Jemma Thacker (#27) and Bianca McCalop (#43)

- The Rockets also have four of the top 50 ranked players in the competition in Taylor Ortlepp (#6), Jess Good (#14), Sam Defrancesco (#18) and Abi Mader (#41) but the difference is three of them are in the top 20.

The Money Women

Teige Morrell – The Halls Medallist can be the difference between the two sides and her battle with her Rockets equal will be the difference in this game. Morrell averages 23.05 ppg and 12.42 rebounds per game and where she catches and delivers her points it’s no surprise she has a field goal percentage of 61.36 percent.  
 
Jess Good – She is the lynchpin and the heart of this Rockets team and she can really give “the blues” to the Tigers if she gets into her box-out positions on the floor at both ends. She is an instant double double even if you can quell her influence averaging 16.52 ppg and 13.04 rebounds per game including 3.95 assists per game. In the post season Good is averaging 21 ppg and 17.66 rebounds per game showing when the finals arrive, she is well and truly the money woman for the Red and White.      

The Reliable Women  

Morgan Yaeger – The 2020 Adelaide Lightning guard came into this season with a point to prove and her one finals game after finishing the regular season with an ankle injury yielded 29 points, 16 rebounds and 4 assists. She has been consistent all season and of course did not play the Rockets in the last round of the season when they lost. Last time they played at the Tiger Cage she had 25 points against the Rockets, that’s danger zone territory offensively for whoever guards her.        

Taylor Ortlepp – It could be a head-to-head with her Adelaide Lightning teammate in Ortlepp and she has been in a rich vein of form at the right time heading to her second consecutive WNBL season with the Lightning. She’s averaging 19.38 ppg along with a consistent 5.09 assists and 6 rebounds per game, her points in the post season however tally 21.33 per game however she has also played close to 40 minutes every finals match. She will be looking to drive and weave to the hoop having found the charity stripe 30 times and shooting it at 85.66 percent in those games.

The X-Factors

Bianca McCalop – If there is one player that wants to impact on Saturday’s decider its McCalop who started last season’s ABC Grand Final on fire. McCalop had knocked down 11 points including 3 triples in the opening quarter to give the Tigers a 9-18 early lead in last year’s decider then noticeably wasn’t able to find space and finished with 15 points for the remainder of the game. A year is a long time in basketball and McCalop could loom once again as another weapon the Rockets have to guard and that frees up the big two in Morrell and Yeager. She is currently one of her last ten attempts and the longer she goes without striking, the better the prospects of her pouring in some bombs from deep increase.    

Shannon Webber – A genuine factor for the Rockets this post season and has drawn plenty of attention from many on-lookers. The shooting guard who dropped 12 in a final quarter for the Adelaide Lightning way back in 2016-2017 season has been in accurate touch averaging ironically 12 ppg in her last two finals matches where against the Sabres she was a perfect 100 percent from the field. At 30 years of age and having won with the group back in 2014 and 2018, she would love to add a third championship and as one of the experienced in-form players, the “Mad Max” genes may come out at a big time.    

Photo By Kelly Barnes/AllStar Photos

Article Sources: Basketball SA, Noarlunga City Tigers Heritage, Boti Nagy and Ray Girvin