WALLAN and Seymour endured an up-and-down weekend of Country Basketball League north-east division action at the weekend, winning two of their five combined games.
Wallan’s women started off a Panthers home double-header on Saturday night with a nail-biting overtime loss to the Wodonga Lady Wolves.
Wallan led by a point in the dying stages of the game but a late turnover led to a fastbreak opportunity for Wodonga’s Rachel Jeffry who was fouled, splitting a pair of free throws to tie the game at 60.
Wodonga stole the resulting inbounds pass, but was unable to capitalise, sending the game to an additional frame.
The visitors led for much of the extra five minutes, but a late basket by Melissa Buckley tied the game again at 71 with only three seconds left.
An ensuing offensive foul by Wodonga gave Wallan the ball back with a chance to win the game, but the Lady Wolves’ Amy Hutchinson made a remarkable play by stealing the Panthers’ inbound pass and launching a long, buzzer-beating three-pointer off one leg to win the game 74-71.
Seymour’s women also lost on Saturday, going down 58-73 against the Albury Cougars on the road.
The Blasters seemingly had no answer for Albury’s Jade McCowan, who scored 29 points.
Although Tayha Watkins matched McCowan’s points total, the depth of Albury was too much for Seymour, which suffered its second loss of the season.
The Blasters’ men scored a 74-61 win, blowing the Cougars away in the last quarter behind Keenan Gorski’s 29 points, along with 14 from Jordan Hockley, 13 from Tom O’Connor and 12 from Harry Stones.
While Wallan supporters had their hearts broken in the women’s game on Saturday, they had plenty to cheer about in the following men’s game, also against Wodonga.
The Wolves jumped out of the blocks to lead by 18 points at half time, but a huge second half from the Panthers – who outscored their opponents 64-26 after the long break – saw them earn a 94-84 win.
Ryan Philippe came up big for Wallan with 28 points and Jayden O’Brien showed excellent outside shooting touch, hitting five three-pointers to finish with 26 points.
The men could not repeat their performance the following day when the Panthers travelled to Albury to take on the Cougars.
Little separated the sides after one quarter, but Albury slowly worked its way ahead thereafter to emerge with a 10-point win.
Philippe continued his individual hot streak with 32 points and Luke Liesegang chimed in with 23, but the rest of the team struggled to achieve any fluency, scoring only 13 points combined.
Wallan’s women were also outclassed by the Panthers, losing 38-83.
The Panthers played their best basketball early, scoring 19 points in the first term, but could only manage another 19 points for the remainder of the game.
Carley Cranston was the lone Panther to reach double figures with 10 points, as Nicola Stewart, Erin Mifsud and Ruby Pantisano scored seven each.
Seymour is the sole undefeated team in the men’s conference and sits atop the ladder, while Wallan is fourth with a 6-3 record.
The Blasters’ men will host Mansfield Eagles at Seymour Sports and Aquatic Centre at 7pm on Saturday, before travelling to Myrtleford to take on the Saints at 2pm on Sunday.
Wallan will play an 8pm away game against Wangaratta Warriors on Saturday.
Seymour’s women do not play on Saturday but are in action against the Saints at 12pm on Sunday, while Wallan women will travel to Wangaratta to play at 6pm on Saturday.
