Chambers Franklyn Game Review

Friday Night Round 4 – Women:

The Chambers Franklyn City of Joondalup Wolves women gave the crowd a show in the Battle of Joondalup on Friday night resulting in a 92-87 hard-fought victory!

In the Wolves first possession of the game, Neseya Parker-Williams drew a foul on a right-hand drive – a foreshadow of the aggressive play she was about to bring all night long. Senators’ player, Stacey Barr fought back herself with 10 points in the first quarter – reminding the Wolves they wouldn’t be able to win with offense alone. The battle had begun.

It was a battle on the boards with a Natalie Burton and Teige Morrell faceoff as well. Teige showed her determination in the start of the second quarter with two possessions back-to-back of offensive board put backs. And Natalie fought back with an offensive board put-back “and one” to end the half – 53-41.

The third quarter was all Warwick. They won the quarter 14-26 and the lead the Wolves had at half-time was erased with a score of 67-67 entering the fourth. The run continued, Senators getting up 5 mid-way through the fourth, and the unbeaten Wolves team had their first real test of the season.

During the stretch that went Warwick’s way, Neseya continued to be very aggressive as a scorer, and kept the Wolves close - scoring  8 points in the third quarter and another 5 quickly in the start of the fourth.

Teige and Robbi Ryan both had a very quiet second half. Teige had only one field-goal attempt to that point during the run by Senators, but woke up quickly with a couple scores and a handful of plays resulting in free-throws. After 5 straight points from Teige, Robbi hit a big three on the left wing to tie the game. Robbi followed that up with more big plays – assists and scores.

The Wolves kept scoring. Additionally, they iced the game 4-4 from Teige and Chelsea Belcher at the free-throw line and their defence got stop after stop to close the game with Warwick only scoring 3 points to the Wolves 13 in the final 5 minutes and 8 seconds – enough for them to come away victorious 92-87.

Teige ended the night with 14 boards, 20 points and 5 assists. Robbi contributed 19 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. And Neseya completed her stat line with a whopping 34 points and 17 rebounds - earning her third MVP award of the season.

Coach Marcus Wong shared his thoughts on the battle:

“It’s a positive that we can win ugly sometimes. It’s a positive that we ground it out. At the 5-minute mark we could’ve rolled over, and it could’ve been all over for us. And we stuck together, and we grounded it out.”

Now with a 4-0 record, the Wolves verse the Lakeside Lightning back on home territory, once again, this Saturday, 7^th May in the Breast Cancer Awareness Pink Round!

Friday Night Round 4 – Men:

The Chambers Franklyn City of Joondalup Wolves men had a rough night in the Battle of Joondalup against Warwick Senators Friday night going down with their first loss of the season, 110-77.

The energy from the Wolfpack fans quickly dissipated after a 17-28 first quarter score and the performance did not improve from the Wolves with an almost identical second quarter of 18-29 – totalling to a half time score of 35-57.

Unfortunately, even after a mini fight-back in the third quarter, with Wolves MVP of the night, Joel Vaiangina ramping things up for the Wolves, it wasn’t enough for a catch up – allowing the Senators another 27 points to their 23. And the deflated Wolves could not claw back resulting in their first loss of the season; 110-77 to the Senators.

Four of the five starters from the Senators put up an impressive 21, 20, 18 and 17 points. While Jonathan Wade lead the Wolves with 17 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists, followed by CJ Turnage’s 16 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. And lifted by his 10 point third quarter, Joel completed the night with 15 points and 3 assists.

Coach David Morrell shared his thoughts on the loss:

“We talked about just trying not to be too high when we were 3-0 and we had just come off a win; we’re trying not to be too low after coming off a very poor performance. And really, the losing, it should hurt tonight because we just weren’t good at all, but it’s just a matter of going into film; have guys with hungry eyes and ready to learn when we get into film on Tuesday and learn our lesson. If we don’t learn our lesson, then we’re bound to repeat performance and have more games like this. We have a room full of guys who don’t want to have another performance like this though, so we’ll get into film and we’ll really study up and improve all the mistakes that we made.”

The Wolves face the Lakeside Lightning with another home game next Saturday, 7^th May in the Cancer Awareness Pink Round. Be sure to make it out, Wolfpack fans, and support the Wolves as they play for another great cause!