A fourth term surge sees Boomers take the win over Lightning
With a massive final quarter effort your Deakin Melbourne Boomers last night notched up their fifth win for the season, defeating Adelaide Lightning 71-57. After a slow start that saw the team trail by three points at quarter time and four at the half, the Boomers took the lead for the first time with 29 seconds remaining in the third term, the scoreboard showing 45-44 in our favour at 3QT. Some fantastic team defence and a sudden surge of buckets created a 26-13 point difference in the final term and sealed the win for the Boomers.
After being named in the WNBL Players of the Season (so far) earlier this week, star import Lindsay Allen once again showed her effectiveness on court, finishing the game with 20 points, six rebounds and five assists to her name. Despite not scoring in the first quarter, Allen top scored for the Boomers and certainly played a massive role in the end result. In the post game press conference, Coach Guy Molloy once again highlighted the fact that his starting point guard is not long back from a knee injury, and that she is only going to keep getting better. “I think she’ll get stronger through this middle part of the year and that’s a good thing for us”.
Molloy also spoke highly of 20 year old Ezi Magbegor, who finished the game with a double-double, 13 points and 11 rebounds. Magbegor had a huge last quarter, racking up nine points, four rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block in the crucial 10 minute period. “I missed a few easy buckets in the first half of the game, so I think with that, I just try to stay in the game, find my teammates and pull down the rebounds, just find ways to stay in the game… and thankfully they started to drop in the second half”.
The Boomers also had a rich performance off the bench, Penina Davidson finishing one rebound short of a double-double. In her best game of the season so far, Davidson recorded 11 points and nine rebounds, alongside a block and an assist also. Coming off a strong performance in the FIBA Pre-Olympic Qualifiers last week, Davidson was able to score buckets at times when the rest of her teammates were struggling to do so. Kalani Purcell (2 pts, 6 reb, 3 ast) and Stella Beck (5 pts, 2 ast, 5 stls) also made strong contributions coming off the bench. Beck was able to keep ex-Boomer and Opals player Steph Talbot to a quiet seven points, whilst the Boomers were also able to restrict Lauren Nicholson to just six points.
Despite being obviously pleased with the win, Molloy described the victory as “ugly” and will no doubt look for a stronger four quarter performance when the Boomers take the court again in less than 48 hours against the Bendigo Spirit, the second away game of the weekend.
Deakin Melbourne Boomers 71 (Allen 20, George 13, Magbegor 13)
Adelaide Lightning 57 (Seekamp 15, Brook 10, Turner 10)