THE Wallan Panthers remain undefeated in the Country Basketball League, winning two games on the weekend including one against the former grand finalists.
It was the long trip out to Albury which kickstarted the Panthers weekend.
The men’s team looked to have a contest on their hands by the first break, trailing in a high scoring quarter 29-24, but a coaching masterclass must’ve sparked something for the Panthers.
They dominated the second, to lead by 14 at the main break, then going one further in the third to grow the lead by an additional 20 points by the final stop.
Running away with it in the last, Jayden O’Brien, Dion Stacey, Tyrone Baillie, Brody Thrum and Jacob Skora were all dominant, finishing with at least double figures each.
It wasn’t to be for the women’s team though, as they went down in a 37-point loss.
They couldn’t get going out of the gates and Albury looked to have been too strong across all four quarters.
Carley Cranston had 11 points for Wallan, the Panthers’ highest scoring player for the game.
Onto Sunday, the women kicked things off for the day against close town rivals Seymour at RB Robson Stadium in Wallan.
A dead rubber in the first term led to a blowout in the second which set the game up for the Panthers as they exploded to a 15-point lead within just one quarter.
From there on they were good enough to hold out the rest of the game to eventually win by 16 points, making it the second time this season Wallan have defeated Seymour in the women’s division.
Cranston remained dominant throughout the game again, scoring 20 points alongside Kendra Reukers’ 14 points while Kasey Lennox did all she could for Seymour, scoring 13 points.
In the men’s, it was a grand final rematch just after the women’s game, which started as a hot contest that Seymour would look to dominate.
Holding a seven-point lead in the first, Harry Stones and Jack Murphy were pushing Wallan hard from the get-go.
In the second, it was unforced errors which cost Wallan on the scoreboard, as Seymour extended its lead to 18 points by the half.
League leading scorer, Tyler Best was starting to get hot for Seymour, but must have cooled by half time as he slowed down in the third.
The Panthers started hitting more shots after the break, thanks to multiple three’s from Jordan Moussa and Rhylee Leighton who were strong with Dion Stacey to lift the men in green.
They had closed the margin to just eight points at the final break, leaving Seymour nervous.
The Panthers weren’t done yet though, scoring the next 13 of 17 points to take the lead half way through the last.
Murphy hit a clutch three for Seymour which regained the lead, until Thrum, O’Brien and Skora stood tall for the Panthers to gain a four-point lead with 2.17 on the clock.
Seymour would eventually close the margin to one point with seconds to go, but the Panthers were strong at the line to push it back out to five by the buzzer.
Wallan moved on with its sixth win of the season, undefeated, while Seymour remain second on the table, sitting with five wins and two losses, both against Wallan.
In the women’s Seymour sit fourth on the table, with just two wins and five losses as the gap to third remains at large.
Wallan sit just two spots below them on the same amount of wins, but only remain higher than seventh and eighth thanks to multiple games missed from the bottom teams.
