Tara Murray
Keilor Thunder’s championship dreams fell short at the final hurdle in the National Basketball League 1 South women’s competition.
Having risen from 16th last season, the Thunder under Kristi Harrower became one of the dominant sides of the competition.
It made its first finals series and won through to its first grand final against the Waverley Falcons on Saturday afternoon.
The Thunder started the better of the two sides and managed to get out to a 10 point lead. Once the Falcons got into the game in the second quarter they were hard to stop, leading by two points at the main break.
The third quarter is the premiership quarter and that was when the game was decided as the Thunder went cold and struggled to put points on the board.
Keilor fought hard in the final quarter and got it back to within one basket more than once.
The Falcons though were able to steady to come away with the 87-82 win.
Thunder coach Kristi Harrower said they might have played their grand final game in the preliminary final.
“The girls played their hearts out and just wasn’t to be,” she said. “It was a tough game, it was physical.
“We probably just didn’t shoot the ball well like we did last week.”
Harrower said while they struggled with their shooting at times, she felt defensively they were also a little bit off at times.
She said allowing them to shoot 50 points in the first half killed them as they wanted to try and keep them in the 65-70 range for the whole game.
“Them having 50 in the first half, really hurt us and that was the biggest thing is trying to make sure that our defence was on point,” Harrower said.
“They shot the lights out from the three-point line. It’s disappointing.”
Harrower said the third quarter when they struggled from the perimeter was something they’d struggled with at times all season.
She said usually their defence is good enough to be able to hold that, but it wasn’t in the grand final.
Maddy Rocci and Isabelle Bourne scored 24 points each for Thunder.
While disappointed with the final result, Harrower said she was so proud of what the group had been able to achieve.
“It’s amazing for the club that we made it in my first year, the girls first year,” she said. “But now hopefully we can keep building and bring the same group back and I’d love to bring the same group back because they’re actually a really special group and they get along really well together.”
Harrower said it was exciting that the club had a lot of young talent coming through as well.
They had three youth league players part of the side for most of the season, including the grand final.
“I would really love to bring this team back and keep building on this, so much potential within this group I think we can get better each year,” she said.
“They’re [Keilor] after local talent. They’re after building and they’re wanting to develop these kids.
“Even the youth league girls, I get they didn’t play much but they get to go training against quality players every time we step on the floor for training and you know for them training against some of the best in Australia, that’s exciting for them.”
While the Thunder didn’t claim the championship, it did come away with three awards at the awards night on Friday night.
Harrower was named coach of the year, while Bourne was named most valuable player and in the all-star five.
Harrower said she really enjoyed her first season in charge,
“I mean the girls made it so much easier for me,” she said. “It was nice winning coach of the year, but this [the championship] would have capped it all off, for the season that we’ve had and the group that we’ve had together.”
As for Bourne, Harrower said she’s got so much potential to be even better.
“We’ve got to get her three ball going as consistent as Carly Ernst [grand final most valuable player] shoots it because she has everything else going for her.
“She is someone with so much talent that is actually a really good person as well.
“She wants to work hard and wants to get better, she’s exciting.”
