Lull crushes hopes of glory

THE Geelong Lady Supercats season has ended at the hands of Launceston, the Tornadoes eclipsing the visitors by 11 points, 79-68, in Saturday night’s south conference preliminary final in Tasmania.

Geelong outscored the home side 38-27 in the second half, but a second-quarter fade-out proved fatal for Dave Herbert’s line-up.

“We were beaten by a better team, there’s no doubt about that,” Herbert said minutes after the final buzzer.

“Our second quarter was horrible; they hit everything, they were on fire, we weren’t, then the crowd got going.”

The Lady Supercats entered the cut-throat clash full of confidence, having defeated Launceston in the previous contest in the Apple Isle a month earlier, 64-57.

Despite trading blows for much of the first term, Geelong fell behind by four points by quarter time, 21-17.

The next quarter saw the region’s premier outfit outplayed on the glass and struggling to find the basket, but, as significantly, unable to curb the Tornadoes’ scoring.

The home side poured in 31 points to 13 to build an almost unassailable 22-point buffer by the main break.

“We couldn’t seem to make a lay-up or a basket at crucial times, but in saying that they were out by as much as 25 and we got it back to nine at one point,” Herbert said.

“If we’d made a couple of shots that we took in the fourth, we were right back in the contest.”

Searching for a semblance of respectability and a true indication of his line-up’s ability, he did extract an improved performance from his charges in the second half, albeit to no avail.

“The girls responded really well, our second half was very good, that’s what I’d expect,” Herbert said.

“But when you get down by 22 to a team like that, that has a lot of scoring power, it’s pretty hard to stage a comeback.”

Geelong was best served by Sara Blicavs, Rohanee Cox and Alex Duck with 18, 15 and 12 points, with Geelong shooting at 34 per cent in contrast to the home side’s 45 per cent.

Alex Bunton ripped down another 10 rebounds and put up seven points.

Meanwhile, former Lady Supercat Tayla Roberts proved a major thorn in the visitor’s side with 22 points at 60 per cent, while Mikaela Ruef vacuumed up 18 rebounds to go with her 17 points at 46 per cent.

“They were very good, they’ve got a good group,” Herbert said of the victors.

“Whoever wins our conference will win the SEABL competition, unfortunately we’re not going to be participating.”