With a playoff spot on the line, the SmartSkill Seahawks Women’s team took on the Force of Ipswich this past Saturday night at the Nest.
A big start from the Force got the Seahawks Women on the back foot straight away, with Catherine MacGregor and Rachel Mate firing from the perimeter.
Not being able to keep the Force off the foul line (21 of 27) for the remainder of the game really hurt the home side, and even with a fast finish in front of a roaring home crowd the SmartSkill Seahawks Women eventually went down 65-77.
After not starting the way they wanted, Head Coach Paula Jansen was positive with the remainder of the game even though the result fell to Ipswich.
“We just have to start games better” said Jansen.
“We had the fire and energy to keep us in the game late, but we just ran out of time”
“If you look at the stats, we won every category aside from connecting from 3 and keeping them off the foul line”
For the Women, Lauren Jansen had a huge game with 15 points, 18 Rebounds (10 Offensive) and 4 assists and the newly named Junior Player of the Year Ella Brow finished the game with 16 points on 7 of 10 shooting, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
The Seahawks Men started on fire against the Force, connecting on their first three 3-point attempts to get them away on their best start of a game for the season.
Not be outdone, the Force showed their experience and poise with veteran Ryan Jeffries and Australian Boomer Nathan Sobey steadying the ship, helping the Force out to a comfortable lead at the main break.
It was all too much firepower for the Seahawks Men in the end, with the Force not taking their foot off the pedal and finished the game as 43-point victors, 70 – 113.
Loseli Tupou was huge for the home side, finishing 16 points and 12 rebound of 50% shooting. Young gun Maika Shortland kept showing his potential with a 15-point, 6 rebound game with 12 of those points coming from the land of plenty.
Head Coach Brad Kann was again optimistic in defeat.
“I will continue to take positives out of every game we play for the remainder of the season” said Kann.
“We made the decision that we weren’t going to allow Nathan Sobey to dominate us in this game, which he didn’t (3/7 shooting)”
“We wanted someone else to beat us in this game, and they had contributions from all over the floor”
“Ryan Jeffries has been a star in this league for some time and picked up the scoring slack for the Force side”