2
Aug
East Finals
Kids are alright: CoE holds of Lytle and Bandits at AIS
CoE's Aspen Crase went 5-from-6 in the semi-final against Albury-Wodonga Bandits in the NBL1 East. Photo: Greg Francis
Highlights
Emily Lytle scored 40 of her team's 69 points, and Central Coast came back from 10 down to win.
- Emily Lytle scored 40 of the Bandits' 69 points and still lost
- Central Coast trailed by 10 at three-quarter time and won the last 29-17
- Manly Warringah's women won and their men lost, same venue, same day
Albury-Wodonga Bandits forward Emily Lytle scored 40 points, made all 11 of her free throws but watched her season end, one of four NBL1 East semi-finals across Saturday and Sunday that turned on a single player or a single quarter.
Forty of her team's 69. Fifty-eight per cent of everything the Bandits scored, and the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence still won it 77-69 at the AIS.
The Centre of Excellence opened with a 29-8 quarter. Albury-Wodonga then won the second and third 46-26 and got within one at 55-54, and the national development program closed it out 22-15.
Lytle went 14-from-24 from the field and 11-from-11 at the line with eight rebounds. The rest of her team went 12-from-49.
Captain Unique Thompson had 16 points and 16 rebounds, nine of them offensive, on 7-from-25.
For the Centre of Excellence, nine players scored. Aspen Crase had 15 on 5-from-6, Olivia Olechnowicz 14 points and six assists, and captain Isabel Smith 14. Olechnowicz and Smith were both in the Sapphires side that won bronze at the FIBA Under-17 Women's World Cup.
Jemyma Manyok blocked six shots. The Centre of Excellence blocked eight as a team. Attendance was 82.
Central Coast came from 10 down with a quarter to play.
The Crusaders trailed Manly Warringah 54-44 at the last change of the men's semi-final on Sunday afternoon and won the quarter 29-17 to take it 73-71.
They shot 32.3 per cent for the game and won anyway, because they went 23-from-28 from the free-throw line while Manly went 13-from-18.
Dylan Tea scored 25 with nine from the line, Jamal Shoaib 15 on 4-from-6 from deep, and captain Luke Cassidy 11 points and seven assists. Garric Young had 10 rebounds and Matur Maker seven points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
Quinn Slazinski top-scored for Manly with 16 on 5-from-21. Captain Stefan Valkovic added 14 and six offensive rebounds, and Isaiah Lee 12 points with nine assists.
Manly out-rebounded them 50-45 and lost.
Two hours earlier on the same floor, Manly's women had won.
The Sea Eagles beat the Newcastle Falcons 90-78, so the club took a win and a loss at Northern Beaches on the same afternoon.
Jayda Jansen scored 25 on 8-from-14, Zoey Miller 22 with nine assists, Alex Delaney 15 on 4-from-6 from three, and Bree Delaney 14. Manly made 12 three-pointers to Newcastle's five.
Newcastle captain Nicole Munger had 24 points and six assists, and Mia Heide 22 points and 16 rebounds. W Draft pick Saffron Shiels did not dress.
Sutherland put up a hundred.
The Sharks beat the Maitland Mustangs 100-76 on Saturday night, leading 61-43 at half-time and never letting it close.
Tyler Robertson scored 24 with seven assists and went 7-from-7 at the line, Adrian Cabrera 20 on 8-from-10, captain Lochlan Hutchison 13 with six assists, and Jason Spurgin 12.
Luke Jamieson had the line of the round: six points, 16 rebounds, 10 of them offensive, and seven steals.
Sutherland shot 52.2 per cent and made 22 of their 25 free throws. William Cranston-Lown top-scored for Maitland with 17.
NBL1 EAST SEMI-FINALS
- Women: BA Centre of Excellence 77 def. Albury-Wodonga Bandits 69 (Lytle 40; Crase 15)
- Women: Manly Warringah Sea Eagles 90 def. Newcastle Falcons 78 (Jansen 25; Munger 24)
- Men: Sutherland Sharks 100 def. Maitland Mustangs 76 (Robertson 24; Cranston-Lown 17)
- Men: Central Coast Crusaders 73 def. Manly Warringah Sea Eagles 71 (Tea 25; Slazinski 16)
