Wenty Leagues produced a solid 86-70 win tonight over 4th-placed Dandenong Rangers after leading at every break. The Big 3 of Jansens, Van Asperen and Latham combined for 76 points and 37 rebounds in their first outing together. Coach Gerry Hewson was reasonably satisfied with how they played together given that they've had just one practice session to get their offence organised. 

"We missed a few shots inside in the first quarter but we kept moving the ball well which gave us plenty of easy opportunities. All the guys pushed the floor hard which got us some nice transition baskets and kept the pressure on them on defence," said Hewson.

Dandenong was led by Shaun Groenewegan who tallied 34 points at 57% accuracy. He also pulled in 11 rebounds for a double-double. Unfortunately for the Rangers, he didn't get much assistance from his teammates with former Australian representatives Message, Ewin and Fraser combining to make just 6 of 31 field goal attempts.

The WheelKings won the match through controlling the rebounds by a margin of 48 to 35 and by shooting a tidy 52% from the field to Dandenong's 38%. Credit Wenty's tough half-court defence for putting plenty of pressure on their shooters. Coach Hewson said Shannon Dallas, Kylie Gauci and Jeremy Doyle adjusted well to slow down the high-scoring Groenewegan on the perimeter. Kylie was also very efficient offensively, making 4 of her 5 shots.

Special mention must be made of Bill Latham's smooth integration back into the side. His skills have taken another step up following his time in the Spanish League and with the Australian Rollers. He had 21 points and 10 rebounds but that didn't stop Jeremy Van Asperen and Koen Jansens going off for 25 and 30 points respectively. Jeremy also snared 21 rebounds to complete a rather successful night on the hardwood.

Craig Cannane and Jonathon Simon didn't see a lot of court time because the rotations were mucked up when Jeremy Doyle had to sit out 20 minutes of the game after some controversial early foul trouble. He was assessed with 3 fouls halfway through the first quarter, 2 of them offensive. With an overall 25 to 12 foul count against them, Wenty may be hoping for a bit more parity tomorrow.

So, there will be no celebrating tonight as the 2 teams meet again at 10am in the morning. The Rangers probably won't shoot as poorly as they did today and the WheelKings will be looking to keep turnovers and fouls to a minimum, and to continue their fine shooting and rebounding. The WheelKings would have to be favoured to come away with a second win but they'd be foolish to take the Rangers lightly.

You can get to the full statistics for the game on the Live Stats page at assoc_page.cgi?c=1-4219-0-0-0&sID=72218