Round 1 of the 2014 WNWBL season came and went quicker than a case of the hiccups. Now that the dust has settled on a massive weekend of basketball, let’s dive in and take a look at some of big talking points from the round.

 

 

 

 Round 1 was all about the Comets

After just three wins in their first three seasons back in the WNWBL, the Comets swept the opening round of games taking home four wins from four games.

The Queenslanders sit on top of the league ladder for the first time in the club’s short history and seem to have formed the complete team. They have dominant highs that are scoring points, quality mids, depth in their lows and plenty of support off the bench.

Mel Hall is also welcomed back and makes a huge difference to the Comets. She adds points, experience, speed and plenty of defensive nous.

The Comets will be hardest to score on when they switch to their press and as the season wears on, could very well be the team to beat come finals time.

 

Guard those low pointers

Generally not known for scoring big points, some of our Australian one pointers managed to keep the score table pretty busy in Round 1.

Sarah Vinci topped the list when she posted 14 against the Flames.

Steph Van Leeuwen scored 11 against the Bears on Sunday, 8 of which coming in a massive third quarter to keep the Flames in touch and Perth’s Clare Nott had 8 of her own against Victoria.

Opposition teams beware; it looks like we have some more shooters you’ll have to think about jumping out to.

 

Mari Amimoto Just got harder to guard

Mari Amimoto is in more than just great form. She’s been a prolific scorer in the WNWBL for a number of years and was the leading scorer at this year’s World Championships but had added a new element to her game; a left hand.

She averaged 23.5 points per game in round 1 with a large portion of those coming from the left side.

When she drives, she has the confidence and ability to lay the ball up with her left hand and in traffic shoots the ball with her left hand as naturally as she does with her right.

It might not be a new string to Mari’s bow but it’s definitely improved. If her opponents found her hard to contain in previous years, she’s going to be twice as difficult to shut down in 2014.

 

Amber raises the bat

It has to be said that the standout individual performance of the weekend has to go to Perth’s Amber Merritt.

Amber piled on 53… That’s right 53 points against Victoria on Saturday and we’re not sure but we think that might be a league record.

Record or not, 53 points in a single game is a super human effort and with Amanda Nott gone from the Stars this year and limited high point support, Amber was always going have increased scoring opportunities.

Great job Amber, but we called it last season…. Just saying.

 

The Future

Everyone involved in the Gliders program will no doubt be disappointed with their results from Toronto but after seeing all the girls in action over the weekend, there’s no doubting it was just a small bump on their journey to bigger and better things.

There is some real quality in the WNWBL and perhaps even more exciting is some of the young talent scattered amongst the league that will be pushing for spots in the Australian U25 team next year and Gliders teams after that.

Players such as:

• Jess Cronje (Flames)
• Hannah Dodd (Flames)
• Laura Basseggio (Victoria)
• Georgia Inglis (Stars)
• Georgia Munro-Cook (Bears)
• Georgia Bishop-Cash (Comets)

Also worth a mention is Mel Adams (Victoria), who will be too old for the Australian U25s teams in 2015 but has the looks of a future Glider.

Special future mention to the first coach who will have all three Georgia’s in the same team. Start thinking of nick names girls. 

 

Written by Joel Mackenzie
Photo Credit to Max Illingworth