In their first and only road trip north for the QSL season, the SmartSkill Seahawks Women and Seahawks Men came home with a mixed bag, with the Women staying undefeated at
7-0 for the season, while the men delivered Gladstone their first victory of the year after a disappointing display of basketball on Saturday night.
The SmartSkill Seahawks women, minus Krystle McKenzie and Taylor Harvey for the 3rd straight game, started the first half slow offensively, only compiling 33 points but showed that their defence will win them games by containing Gladstone to a measly 8 points in both the first and second quarters.
The second half saw the girls unload offensively, whilst still being stingy on the defensive end, winning the second half 58-28 and run out overall victors 91-45.
The ever-consistent Courtney Willemse was tough to stop all night for the locals, ending the game with 20 points on 7-16 shooting, 6 rebounds and 3 steals.
Jasmine Hunter continued her hot streak after being inserted into the starting line-up, ended up with an impressive stat line with 18 points (7-10 fg), 8 rebounds and 3 assists.
New Seahawk, Tamsyn Pascoe, had her biggest outing of the season, finishing the game with 15 points and 8 rebounds of her own.
Head Coach for the North Gold Coast Seahawks SmartSkill Women, Brad Kann, was happy that he was able to go deep into his bench on the trip north.
“It was pleasing that all of our girls got a solid hit out over the weekend” said Kann.
“It was great to see the likes of Jasmine (Hunter), Tamsyn (Pascoe) and Anahera (Tuhega) play and produce on both ends of the floor”
“I thought we were exceptional on the defensive end, particularly the first 3 quarters where we limited their output to 25 points”
“It was a great team effort on Saturday night and I’m proud of the entire group for taking care of business”
It wasn’t as great a news for the Seahawks Men on Saturday, with this game looming as a danger game for the young group as veterans David Gurney (family commitments) and Rhys Martin (injured) unavailable for the trip north.
Similar to their female counterparts, the Men really struggled to put the ball in the hoop in the first quarter but held tough defensively and kept the Power men to 9 points.
The second quarter saw the reins loosen a touch offensively for both teams, with the Seahawks still keeping the home side to 16 points while putting in 22 of their own, heading to the half time break up 13, 38-25.
The second half was always going to be a test for the relatively inexperienced Seahawks Men side, with the majority of their wins this season coming comfortably on the scoreboard. With this one still in the balance, and in front of a veracious Gladstone home crowd, it was going to take all 10 players to get this across the line.
After winning the 3rd quarter by 1 and heading into the 4th quarter up 14, you could have been mistaken that this was going to be a cruise to the finish line, but Gladstone had other ideas.
Turning the pressure up on the defensive end and forcing the Seahawks Men into bad shots, the lead started to dwindle, and it felt like the clock was in reverse.
With a cut in the livestream when the Seahawks Men were up 8, you could have been mistaken in thinking that you were watching a different game, as when it returned Seahawks were up by just 1 heading into the final minute.
Poor shot selection, and equally as poor defensive transition, saw the Gladstone men hit the front for the first time. With 30 seconds left, coach Jordan Mullan used his final timeout to draw up a game winning play.
When the players returned to the court, it looked as if they had forgotten what exactly had been drawn up, with Jesse Lomax stranded at the top of the key and forced to make a play, resulting in a turnover and the whole town of Gladstone went up with an almighty roar, taking out the win 69-67 for their first win of the season.
Coach Jordan Mullan couldn’t hide his disappointment as his team’s loss.
“We knew going into the game we were missing our two most experienced players in (David) Gurney and (Rhys) Martin, and we needed a next man up mindset” said Mullan.
“For 36 minutes of that game we were in the lead, and the only time Gladstone hit the lead was in the last minute of the last quarter”
“It really showed that we aren’t up to the task of closing out games and gave these guys a reality check in the meantime”
“To turn the ball over 21 times against a team that was yet to register a win, just isn’t good enough”
“To also shoot 14 of 30 from the foul line, really shows we do not take care of the small stuff to win the big games”
“Puts us in a tough predicament now heading into the toughest 3-game stretch in the season, with Brisbane Capitals who we only beat by 1 in the first week of the competition, Southern Districts and then Gold Coast, who will all be out for blood after seeing our performance on the weekend”
Tickets to our Home Game this Saturday night at the Nest are available to be purchased at: https://www.seahawksbasketball.com.au/qsl-tickets