Tara Murray
Wyndham’s hopes of the perfect Big V championship women’s season came crashing down in overtime of the grand final on Saturday night.
Facing the Bulleen Boomers in the decider for the second straight year, Wyndham wasn’t able to make it back-to-back titles.
Scores were locked at 70-apiece at the end of regular time, before the Boomers found another level in overtime to come away with the 84-79 win and the championship.
Wyndham coach Gerard Hillier said while it would have been a good spectacle to watch as a spectator, it wasn’t the result they were after.
“It’s a little bit disappointing not to finish off the season the way we had played during the home and away season,” he said.
“That is how it plays sometimes. It was an arm wrestle all day and no one broke away at any point.”
Hillier said it was a stop-start game throughout with both teams, with both teams heavily penalised with fouls.
He said there were some crucial calls down the stretch which were evenly distributed throughout both teams.
“Bulleen got the lucky break and was able to claw away over time,” he said.
“There was a couple of minutes towards the end where the scoring really dried up and both sides had the opportunity to win.
“Unfortunately for us we weren’t able to put enough points in during over time as the scoring dried up.”
In the past, Wyndham would have had game two and possibly a game three to win the championship, but it was played as a one off game this year.
It was also played at a neutral venue.
Hillier said that it had a different feel with only one game and not at the club’s home courts and having such a young side they could have benefited from having more than one game.
“We roll with what the league puts out there,” he said. “It was one game and it didn’t go our way.:”
Skipper Amanda Paschal top scored with 34 points as she also had 15 rebounds, 10 assists and four steals.
While disappointed with the result, Hillier said they had continued to give young locals opportunities and they continue to take it.
“We pride ourselves on giving local players opportunities to play senior basketball,” he said. “For the likes of Holly Dolny (17 points) and Aleks Connolly (16 points) to play considerable minutes and key roles in the championships game, that is huge for us.
“It underlies the work was have done the last 12-24 months. They will keep learning and will come back bigger and better next year.”
After winning two tiles late season and having three teams in grand finals, Wyndham had all four teams make finals, with two sides finishing runners up.
Hillier said it would have been good to have some success in the way of championships but they had laid the foundations for the next few years.
