NBL1 Wildcard Recap | Saturday July 30

The Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence Women's team made it eight wins from 12 matches against NBL1 teams around the country in 2022 by beating the NBL1 West league-leading Joondalup Wolves on Saturday night.

On the back of beating the defending NBL1 West champion Willetton Tigers on Thursday night, the CoE Women's team took on last year's Grand Finalists and the current ladder topping Joondalup Wolves on Saturday night at HBF Arena.

It was an impressive performance from the best young female talent in the country and it's not as if the Wolfpack took it easy on them.

Gun import forward Teige Morrell played over 35 minutes for the Wolves, former WNBL forward and the ever-improving Nes'eya Parker-Williams played over 30 minutes, experienced guards Tia Ucich and Shani Caldwell played around 27 minutes, gun scorer Chelsea Belcher played over 20 minutes and still the CoE team came away with the 79-59 victory.

For the Basketball Australia team, Isobel Borlase had a big night with 25 points and five rebounds with Nyadiew Puoch and Dallas Loughridge both scoring 12 points apiece.

The Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence Women's team will now head straight across the Nullarbor ahead of playing the NBL1 North's undefeated team, Logan Thunder, on Monday and the second placed Southern Districts Spartans on Tuesday.

NBL1 WILDCARD – 2022 SEASON
SATURDAY NIGHT

WOMEN
JOONDALUP WOLVES 59 lost to BASKETBALL AUSTRALIA CENTRE of EXCELLENCE 79

What better way to hasten your development than taking on the best teams around the country and that's exactly what the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence team did on Saturday night.

Fresh off beating the defending NBL1 West champion Willetton Tigers on Thursday night with a 75-72 victory, the CoE Women's team remained in Western Australia but headed north to take on the Joondalup Wolves at HBF Arena.

After just facing the reigning champs in the NBL1 West who remain in third position on the 2022 table, the task for the Basketball Australia team was the league-leading Wolfpack on Saturday night who had lost just the once so far this season.

That lone loss for Joondalup just happened to be in their last game as well against the Warwick Senators and with just three weeks until the playoffs get underway, first year coach Marcus Wong was going to take his team's only game this weekend seriously.

That was good news for the CoE team to give them a genuine test and they were more than up to the challenge.

No more than three points separated the teams in the first quarter with the CoE leading the Wolves 14-13 by quarter-time.

The young guns then began to pull away in the second quarter outscoring the Wolfpack 21 points to 13 to end leading by as much as 10 points, and being up 35-26 by half-time.

It remained a tight contest during the third quarter but then the CoE were able to produce some exciting basketball in the fourth quarter putting together 27 points to 15 to end up winning 79-59.

The result means that the Centre of Excellence Women have now won eight of their 12 matches in 2022 in their tour around the country.

Their wins have come against the Eltham Wildcats, North Adelaide Rockets, Southern Tigers, Mackay Meteorettes, East Perth Eagles, Warwick Senators, Willetton Tigers and now the Joondalup Wolves.

The defeats have been at the hands of the Bendigo Braves, Townsville Flames, Frankston Blues and Knox Raiders.

The reward after beating the two NBL1 West Grand Final teams from 2021 is taking on the top two NBL1 North teams starting with the Logan Thunder on Monday night and the Southern Districts Spartans on Tuesday.

Isobel Borlase produced a standout performance for the CoE with 25 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals on 9/12 shooting from the field and 7/8 from three-point land.

Dallas Loughridge added 12 points, six assists and five rebounds, Nyadlew Puoch 12 points and four rebounds, Jessica Petrie six points and six boards, Ruby Gray six points, Isla Juffermans four points and four rebounds, Saffron Shiels four points and three boards, and Opal Bird four points and four rebounds.

The Wolves did certainly have enough quality and experienced talent out there to give the Basketball Australia outfit a good test with gun import Teige Morrell playing 35 and-a-half minutes for 26 points and 12 rebounds.

Tia Ucich used all of her 135 games of experience for 10 points with Shani Caldwell using her experience of 246 games for five points, three rebounds and two steals.

Laniesha Paddon also had seven points for the Wolfpack and Nes'eya Parker-Williams three points, 12 rebounds, five steals and four assists.