South Spotlight | Yang, Chen star as Tigers prevail

Featured image: @xnp_photography

The Melbourne Tigers took charge in the second half and with a combined 46 points and 12 rebounds, Mingling Chen and Shuyu Yang saw them outscore the Nunawading Spectres 50 points to 31 on the way to the 80-66 NBL1 South win.

Both teams arrived at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre coming off thrilling Saturday night losses with the Tigers going down to Keilor Thunder by two points and the Spectres by a solitary point to the Dandenong Rangers.

That set the stage for a fascinating Sunday clash with Nunawading working on top in the second quarter with 23 points to 16.

The Tigers turned things around to then dominate the second half and went 50 points to 31 to turn a five-point half-time deficit into the 14-point victory.

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The win improves Melbourne to a 7-6 record to close the weekend with Nunawading now 5-9 having lost nine of their past 10 matches.

To the delight of the home fans, the Chinese superstars for the Tigers led them to the victory with Shuyu Yang finishing with 26 points, five rebounds and five assists with 4/6 three-point shooting to make up for the missed call she felt she could have got at the end of the game the night before.

Mingling Chen also delivered 20 points and seven rebounds with 8/14 shooting while Hannah Giddey produced nine points and two rebounds, Isa Brancatisano nine points, eight boards, four assists and two steals, and Leila Davis eight points and nine rebounds.

It's now been a tough stretch of 10 games with nine losses for the Spectres despite Charlise Dunn scoring 10 of their 12 points in the first quarter and finishing the game with 29 to go with nine rebounds and two steals on 11/19 shooting.

Kylee Blacksten added 12 points for Nunawading with Teagan Potter contributing eight points with 4/4 free-throw shooting, Riley Lupfer seven points and three rebounds, and Eliza Hollingsworth seven points, six boards and two assists.

Both teams were fresh off heartbreaking losses the previous night by just a combined three points so they were hungry to bounce back but it was a low scoring opening term with just the combined 26 points.

That saw the Tigers leading 14-12 by quarter-time with both teams shooting an identical 5/16 from the field with Charlise Dunn having 10 of those 12 points for Nunawading.

Nunawading then got rolling in the second frame putting up 23 points with 9/17 shooting along with 3/6 from downtown to go into the half-time break leading 35-30 with Dunn up to 13 points while they had forced the Tigers into nine turnovers to help them get up an extra six shot attempts.

The Tigers were able to turn things around in the third period with 23 points to 14 themselves including going on an 8-0 scoring run to nab the 53-49 advantage by three quarter-time with both Shuyu Yang and Mingling Chen up to 16 points apiece.

Melbourne then went on with the job from there to the delight of their enthusiastic fans with 27 points to 17 in the last quarter to claim the 14-point victory to split their weekend double and hand the Spectres a ninth defeat in their past 10 games.

The Tigers will now be away to the Casey Cavaliers on Friday night while the Spectres don’t play again until Saturday June 13 away to the Waverley Falcons.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | HERITAGE ROUND

MELBOURNE TIGERS 80 (Yang 26, Chen 20, I Brancatisano 9, Giddey 9)

NUNAWADING SPECTRES 66 (Dunn 29, Blacksten 12, Potter 8)