NBL1 South Recap | Friday Women's Round 7

The spectacle of Darcee Garbin and Anneli Maley leading their teams in Round 7 of the NBL1 South competition on Friday night was quite the sight, but in the end it was a Hailey Leidel triple that was the winner for the Eltham Wildcats against the Frankston Blues.

It might have been the only game on Friday night to bring Round 7 of the 2022 NBL1 South season to a close ahead of the Queen's Birthday long weekend, but it sure packed plenty of entertainment and went right down to the death.

Darcee Garbin knocked down seven threes on her way to 35 points for Frankston and her seventh appeared set to send the game into overtime. 

However, Eltham had one last chance and it was Hailey Leidel who knocked down the walk off three-pointer in spectacular fashion and the Wildcats beat the Blues 76-73. 

The rest of the Round 7 action took place last weekend starting on Friday night with the Casey Cavaliers beating the Hobart Chargers 73-55.

Then on Saturday, the Geelong Supercats beat the Ballarat Miners 77-72, the Ringwood Hawks defeated the Bendigo Braves 78-77, the Nunawading Spectres downed the Knox Raiders 69-64, and the Kilsyth Cobras prevailed 87-75 against the Diamond Valley Eagles.

Also on Saturday, the Melbourne Tigers beat Keilor Thunder 78-72, the Casey Cavaliers beat the Launceston Tornadoes 85-71 and the Mount Gambier Pioneers defeated the Frankston Blues 81-65.

Then on Sunday, the Sandringham Sabres beat the Kilsyth Cobras 94-80, the Ringwood Hawks defeated the Eltham Wildcats 96-69, the Waverley Falcons downed Knox Raiders 66-64, the Mount Gambier Pioneers beat the Nunawading Spectres 67-61, and the Dandenong Rangers defeated the Frankston Blues 72-70.

That all means that following Round of the 2022 NBL1 South season, it's the Mount Gambier Pioneers clear on top of the standings at 9-1 ahead of the 8-2 Ringwood Hawks.

The Bendigo Braves and Geelong Supercats are next at 7-2 with the Nunawading Spectres (7-3), Casey Cavaliers (6-4) and Knox Raiders (6-5) just behind.

The Launceston Tornadoes hold a 5-3 record, Waverley Falcons 5-4, Ballarat Miners 5-5, Sandringham Sabres 5-6, Frankston Blues 4-6, Keilor Thunder 4-6, Kilsyth Cobras 4-7, Dandenong Rangers 3-6, Eltham Wildcats 3-6, Melbourne Tigers 2-7, Diamond Valley Eagles 1-8 and Hobart Chargers 0-8.

NBL1 SOUTH – 2022 WOMEN'S SEASON
ROUND 7 – FRIDAY NIGHT

ELTHAM WILDCATS 76 defeated FRANKSTON BLUES 73

There might only have been one game in the NBL1 South competition on Friday night, but what a clash it was between the Eltham Wildcats and Frankston Blues.

WNBL and Australian Opals stars Anneli Maley and Darcee Garbin leading their respective teams into battle tells you all you need to know about the potential of the clash, and it sure didn’t fail to deliver.

The match up took place at Eltham High School and it was Perth Lynx WNBL captain Garbin who threatened to blow the game open with a hot start to the game.

By the time she hit her third three-pointer of the half early in the second quarter, she was looking unstoppable and so were the Blues even though it was only a narrow 39-34 lead for the visitors at half-time.

Garbin then hit consecutive threes to open the second half to go to 24 points. She soon had 27 and then Frankston's lead ballooned out to as much as 16 points, but the Wildcats weren’t going away.

With Maley providing her trademark energy only the WNBL MVP can by grabbing the defensive rebounds and pushing the pace, and then earning her team second chance opportunities, the Wildcats fought back into the contest.

They even grabbed the lead late when another WNBL star, Bec Pizzey, nailed a three-pointer with a minute remaining.

However, who else but Garbin responded for Frankston with a three ball of her own to tie scores up and appear to send the game into overtime with less than two seconds on the block.

Eltham called for timeout and out of that, Pizzey found Hailey Leidel and it will remain a debate the two clubs will never agree on if her shot got off in time or not, but it was deemed legal and her three ball never looked like missing.

It was a walk off three-pointer to give Eltham the 76-73 in the most dramatic of finishes to a tremendous contest all evening.

With Maley leading the charge on the boards for the Wildcats, Eltham delivered a dominant rebounding performance pulling down 63 boards to 40 including 27 at the offensive end compared to 11 from the Blues.

That helped Eltham to take 13 extra field goals for the night but the Blues shot the ball a little better and that kept it a tight contest all evening to set up the grandstand finish.

It was a remarkable performance from Anneli Maley for Eltham on the back of quite the hectic few months having won the WNBL MVP, had a stint in the WNBA at the Chicago Sky and debuting for the Opals.

She might not have shot how she hoped going 8/29 from the floor, but she still finished with stunning numbers of 20 points, 27 rebounds and five assists.

Bec Pizzey added 21 points and 11 rebounds for Eltham with Hailey Leidel delivering 19 points and eight boards as well as the game winner while Taylah Wynne contributed eight points and four assists.

Darcee Garbin was terrific as well for Frankston putting up 35 points and 10 rebounds on 7/13 shooting from three-point land.

Chelsea D'Angelo added 13 points for the Blues, Samara Hill seven points and two assists, and Tess Lavey four points, 10 rebounds and six assists.