Chambers Franklyn Game Review

Saturday Night Round 5 – Women:

The Chambers Franklyn City of Joondalup Wolves women defeated the Lakeside Lightning in Friday night’s NBL1 West Pink Round 115-69!

The night was coloured with pink warm up tops and pink shoelaces, but the real meaning behind it all is what brought the competitive spirit to the HBF stadium with the Wolves keeping Australians affected by breast cancer in the forefront of their minds and, for many, engraved on their hearts.

The Wolves came out firing with a quick 3-pointer followed by a steal and another 2 points from Robbi Ryan; adding to her 12 points in the first quarter alone and helping the Wolves with 29-20 lead entering the second.

The lead stretched out with contributions flying in from all players; the Wolves chemistry shining through as they showcased all their weapons, including their depth with 7 points coming from the bench in the second quarter. Second-chance points from offensive rebounds proved to be a difference maker in the first half as well with a total of 13 entering into half time; Wolves up 62-37.

No adjustments could be made by Lakeside to put a stop to the big bad Wolves in the third quarter as they added 6 more fast-break points to the 9 they had in the first quarter; contributing to their biggest scoring run of the night of 14 points.

The 33-16 third quarter solidified a comfortable lead for the Wolves and the points from the bench came shooting in during the fourth quarter with 16 to the Lightning’s 11. Grace Tavelli added the cherry on top with her first points of the season going 2 for 2 from the foul line. The Wolves win 115-69 over the Lakeside Lightning.

Robbi continued to put on a show all night resulting in a well-deserved MVP award. She ended her stat line with 27 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists; combating lightning with rain from the stripe with 3 of 4 shooting.

Neseya Parker-Williams showed her consistency adding 26 points, 13 rebounds and 4 assists. Robbi ad Neseya both put up an identical and impressive field goal percentage of 73.33%. Teige Morrell contributed a notable team-leading 6 assists to her 19 points in only 20 minutes of game time as she sat to make playing time for some young players. And two more players ended the night in double figures for the Wolves: Tia Ucich with 12 and Laneisha Paddon with 11.

Coach Marcus Wong shared his thoughts on the game:

“We preach that we want contributions from everyone. We’re not after one or two people scoring most of the points. The more points spread we get, to some degree, the better. We had 5 people in double figures tonight. That makes us tougher to defend. Everyone that stepped on the court tonight contributed to the game and impacted the game and it’s always great to see.”

Now with a 5-0 record, the Wolves verse the Southwest Slammers back on home territory, once again, this Saturday, 14^th May in Round 5 of the NBL1 West 2022 season!

Saturday Night Round 5 – Men:

The Chambers Franklyn City of Joondalup Wolves men had their third straight home game of a four-game stretch, facing off against the Lakeside Lightning. The Wolves men needed to turn things around from their disappointing loss the previous week, which was their first loss of the season while the Lightning came in optimistic and excited with the debut of import Landon Taliaferro.

It was a slow start for the Wolves, giving up too many offensive rebounds in the first quarter. Lakeside hit a couple shots while the Wolves were still feeling out their way, and at the start it was 12-5 Lightning up. Things turned a bit to finish the quarter with some good scoring punch off the bench from Maris Colton. Maris ended up with an efficient 13 points on the game on 5/7 shooting, and his mark was felt on the game immediately. A big right wing three by Tom Parkinson versus his previous club, right in front of the Joondalup bench spiked the momentum more. A couple of disruptive defensive possessions got the Wolves a Jordan Wellsteed dunk and a couple other easy looks, and the score was back to 18-21 at the quarter break.

The Wolves defence and rebounding dialled up very well in the second quarter. The Lightning started the quarter at 21 points, with 2 minutes left in the second quarter, they were still at 24 points. At the same time, the Wolves found their rhythm offensively. Jonathan Wade got some transition drives, and Mitchell Newton hit some big shots. Mitch also had a big game with 13 points and hit 3 three-pointers on 6 tries. Julian Pesava also had a huge 12-point quarter himself. Everything was clicking for the Wolves, and they won the quarter 25-10; entering the half 43-31.  

The third quarter was about Jonathan Wade’s hustle and energy. Wade flew around and seemed to get every loose ball and every rebound. CJ Turnage, Julian Pesava took turns scoring to start the quarter, and then to finish the quarter, big Mitch Newton came in and had an 8-point run himself – two 3s and a transition running layup.

The fourth quarter defence by the Wolves was very stingy, and they only gave up 7 points on the quarter. That was enough to comfortably close the game out for an 86-58 win at home. In the 4^th quarter, some of the young Wolves players got some solid court time. Gabriel Chadinha, fresh off his u20 State team participation got his first bucket of the year - an “and-1” mid-range pull up. 

It was a team effort and a very good defensive performance for the Wolves. They had 5 players with 13-points or more. Julian Pesava and Jonathan Wade led the way with 18 apiece. CJ Turnage was right behind that, and then Maris Colton and Mitchell Newton with big 13-point contributions off the bench. 

Jonathan Wade shared his thoughts on the game:

“We harp on defence as a team. We want to be there for each other and we’re working on our defensive details; but I feel like it was a total team effort tonight and I’m very very proud of our team.”

The Wolves face the Southwest Slammer with another home game this Saturday, 14^th May in the NBL1 Round 6. Be sure to make it out, Wolfpack fans, to cheer your Wolves on to another home game victory!