Wildcats Bruised in Double-Header

by noelrr
03/05/2012

The Parramatta Basketball Association's senior men's and women's teams were both on the road to the Condell Park Basketball Stadium on Saturday afternoon, in Round Five of the 2012 Waratah Championship League (WCL) competition. Neither Wildcats team could not find their form away from home, with the women falling 71-34 to the Lady Bruins and the men falling 100-84 to the Bruins men's team. Parramatta's young, inexperienced women's team played well above their ranking, in the early stages of their game against the competition favourites. The Lady Bruins struggled to shake off the tenacious Parramatta youngsters throughout the first quarter but once the home team got their transition game flowing, the margin between the two teams grew rapidly. Amanda Mitchell once again was the only player in double figures for the Wildcats, whilst Josie Taoi and Bernadette Makhlouf both tried valiantly on the boards to hold out the stronger Bruins line-up. The men's game was almost a mirror of Parramatta's effort against Hills District the previous weekend, with a mountain of turnovers allowing the Bruins (on this occasion) to race away to an 18-point lead in the first term, before leading 33-20 at the first break. The Wildcats brought the margin back to just two points (37-35) midway through the second term but continued sloppy turnovers (from the Wildcats) allowed the Bruins to quickly regain the ascendancy and race away to lead 53-41 at half time. Gold Coast Blaze NBL point guard Jason Cadee had been a will-of-the-wisp for the Bruins in the first half but amazingly had an even better performance in the third term, doubling his half time score of seventeen points to lead the Bruins to a 75-58 lead at the end of the third quarter. Bruins head coach Greg Barnes rested Cadee in the final term but his replacement Mark Franco carried on in his team-mates footsteps, also scoring double figures in the final term as the Bruins cruised to a 16-point win. The Wildcats men return home to the Auburn Basketball Centre this Saturday night to host the Central Coast Crusaders at 5pm - the Wildcats women have a bye. WOMEN: Bankstown Bruins 71 (Ellie Junod 23 points, Adrianne Gilbert 13) def Parramatta Wildcats 34 (Amanda Mitchell 13 points, Josie Taoi 9 boards, Bernadette Makhlouf 9 boards). MEN: Bankstown Bruins 100 (Jason Cadee 34 points, Shonravius Mallory 15, Matthew Samuels 14 and Mark Franco 11) def Parramatta Wildcats 84 (Rangi Kennedy 17 points; Goran Veg 14 points, 19 boards; Rory Sutton 13 points, 11 boards) PHOTO: Mark Franco slides past the outstretched hand of Goran Veg to score against the Wildcats - photo by Noel Rowsell (www.photoexcellence.com.au) Apologies if the photo does not load correctly. The photo can also be viewed in the Media Gallery on the PhotoExcellence website.

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