South Spotlight | Dart's 36 lifts Wildcats over Hawks

Featured image: Shane Panther | @shanejpg.sport

Thursday night NBL1 South basketball saw Lil Dart turn it on for the Eltham Wildcats with 22 points in the second half and 36 for the game in the eventual 100-73 win against the Ringwood Hawks.

The Hawks are in the middle of three games this week at Norwood Secondary College as they continue to hunt a first win of the NBL1 South season.

Ringwood did welcome back Emma Clarke but were still without Annabel Deerbon and Lily Scanlon with Aneta Bandilovska joining them out against a Wildcats team trying to back up their 24-point home win last Wednesday night against the Keilor Thunder.

The Hawks did make a fast start with 31 points in the first quarter on 63 per cent shooting, but they only managed 42 points on 16/53 shooting at 30 per cent the rest of the way while also having 24 turnovers with 22 of them after quarter-time.

Eltham went on to dominate the second half with 58 points to 34 to win by 27 and improve to 2-1 on the season while going 24/30 at the free-throw line opposed to the 8/10 for the Hawks.

Lil Dart was brilliant in the win for Eltham putting up 36 points including 22 in the second half to go with nine assists, six steals and five rebounds. She shot 11/24 from the floor but 4/8 from three-point territory and 10/11 at the free-throw line.

Sara-Rose Smith took over the game for a period in the third quarter and ended the night with 15 points, 11 rebounds and three assists on 6/7 shooting with Bec Pizzey contributing 14 points, 11 boards, two assists and two steals.

Sarah Elsworthy added nine points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals, Mackenzie Smith eight points and three boards, and Jayde Cadee eight points and three rebounds.

Emma Clarke did return for Ringwood after missing Tuesday night's game and top-scored for the home team with 13 points with seven rebounds and shooting 3/5 from three-point territory.

Honey Kaur had all 10 of her points in the first quarter while also having six rebounds, three assists and two steals with Taylor Mole adding 10 points, six assists and five boards, and Chelby Koker nine points, five rebounds and five assists.

Ally Bates went 3/6 from three-point range for nine points with Izzy Feller contributing eight points, four rebounds and three assists.

Playing a second home game in three nights, Ringwood put together an exciting first quarter display and went on a 10-0 scoring run at one stage to open up a nine-point advantage.

Honey Kaur ended up with the 10 points for the Hawks with Ally Bates coming on and landing a couple of three-point bombs for the home team to go into quarter-time leading 31-24 despite the 11 points on 2/3 three-point shooting for the Wildcats from Lil Dart.

Eltham were able to put the clamps on Ringwood in the second quarter and ended up holding the Hawks to just the 14 points with 6/17 shooting while also forcing them into eight turnovers.

Eltham managed to put up 22 points opposed to that and went into the half-time break leading 46-45 with Dart going into the locker room with 14 points while Bec Pizzey had 11.

The Wildcats then also held the Hawks to just the 15 points in the third quarter and they found more of an offensive groove themselves by putting up 27 to push their advantage out to 13 by three quarter-time.

Dart added another 11 points in that quarter while Sara-Rose Smith also got going and already had a double-double by three quarter-time with Eltham leading Ringwood 73-60 while forcing the Hawks into another six turnovers in that frame.

It was another 27 points to 13 in the fourth quarter the way of Eltham as they secured the 27-point victory with the Hawks again struggling shooting just 5/16 from the field in the last term including 2/10 from behind the three-point arc.

The Hawks will wrap up their run of three home games in five days this week on Saturday against the Northern Force while the Wildcats will remain on the road to the Dandenong Rangers on Sunday.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | MENTAL HEALTH ROUND

RINGWOOD HAWKS 73 (Clarke 13, Kaur 10, Mole 10)

ELTHAM WILDCATS 100 (Dart 36, Rose-Smith 15, Pizzey 14)