Hornets Finish WCL Season on a High

by noelrr
19/08/2012

The Hills District Hornets hosted the Central Coast Crusaders on Saturday night at the Hills Basketball Stadium, in the final round of the 2012 Waratah Championship League (WCL) competition. The home team ensured their somewhat disappointing season at least ended in a bang, recording a 93-84 win to move into eighth spot on the competition, just one solitary win out of playoff contention. Saturday night's game was not necessarily a game for the purists but it was definitely a tough affair, with six players (three from each team) fouling out during the action. The Crusaders will look back in amazement as to how they let this game slip from their grasp, in spite of trailing 34-23 at the first break in play. The visitors were very aggressive on the offensive boards but failed to capitalise on their huge share of possession, converting a miserly 29 field goals from 87 attempts. In contrast, the Hornets made much better use of the ball, sinking 33 of only 62 field goal attempts - at an impressive 53%. Even when gifted the ball from the Hornets twenty-two turnovers, the Crusaders could not capitalise, scoring a scant fourteen points from those possessions. Once again, the Hornets showed far more respect for the ball, scoring twenty-four points from the Crusaders eighteen turnovers. The Crusaders closed to within five points (64-59) at the end of the third quarter but lost leading scorers Stefan Blaszczynski, Noman Shoaib and Callum Jenkins late in the game, whilst the Hornets had their own foul trouble, losing the game's high scorer Josh Chapman, captain Emils Duselis and centre Richard Clark. The weekend's results have seen the minor premiership awarded to the Newcastle Hunters, just ahead of the Northern Suburbs Bears. Those two teams will sit out the first round of the playoffs, leaving the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles (3rd) to play the Maitland Mustangs (6th and the Illawarra Hawks (4th) to play the Sydney City Comets (5th) in the elimination quarter finals. The two winners, along with the Hunters and Bears, will all move into the Finals Weekend, which will be held at the Maitland Basketball Stadium over the weekend of September 1-2. Hills District Hornets 93 (Josh Chapman 27 points, Robert Meyrick 14, Emils Duselis 13, David Hayman 13, Jason Strong 12) def Central Coast Crusaders 84 (Stefan Blaszczynski 27 points, Noman Shoaib 18, Callum Jenkins 10, Jason Taylor 10) PHOTO: David Hayman at the free throw line for the Hornets - file photo by Noel Rowsell Apologies if the photo does not load - it can also be viewed in the Media Gallery on the www.photoexcellence.com.au website.

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