Harper Sercombe
Wyndham has cleared the first hurdle of their Big V finals championship women’s campaign.
On Sunday, Wyndham eased past the McKinnon Cougars in the first of a best-of-three game semi final series.
The undefeated side is on a mission to go back-to-back at the women’s championship level after beating Bulleen in last year’s grand final.
Wyndham were on top early on Sunday taking a handy 10 point lead into quarter time.
The lead grew to 17 points at the main break before Wyndham was too good for the Cougars in the third term, going on a massive 17-0 run, getting them 29 points up and putting the game to rest.
The scores were even in the last quarter with Wyndham winning 97-66.
“It was really pleasing to continue our form for the regular season into finals and get a strong win first up,” coach Gerard Hillier said.
“[Playing McKinnon in the last round of the season] gave us a level of comfort knowing that we had played them only a week earlier.
“So preparation was a little bit easier than that of previous years.”
League leading scorer Amanda Paschal starred in the win putting down 29 points to go with game highs in 13 rebounds, seven assists and five steals.
“Amanda’s stat line speaks for itself, she’s constantly hovering around a triple double every single game and the stats speak for themselves,” Hillier said.
“I think her ability to lead a younger team and get them involved and get them contributing, is probably more important to us than her individual stat line.”
Off the bench, veteran Jamilee Pearce played an incredible defensive role with three steals, and 11 rebounds, while also scoring six points in her 12 minutes of game time.
“We actually had Jamilee locked in to be the assistant coach this season,” Hillier said.
“By the end of pre-season she was in competition form, and she just got better and better, and back to her normal contributions as the season’s gone on.
“To have such an experienced player in Jamilee to be able to come off the bench is definitely really helpful for us.”
Wyndham will play McKinnon again on Saturday and potentially Sunday too if game three is needed , where Hillier is hoping for more of what they showed on Saturday and throughout the year.
“For us the game plan has been the same every week,” he said.
“Trying to create an up tempo and high energy game and defensively, pressure the full court for four quarters.”
