LACEY LOWDOWN

Three out of five ain’t bad.

The Australian Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) play-off’s begin next week with three of the teams contesting the semi-finals featuring current Tall Ferns players.

Penina Davidson in her first season as a professional since graduating from the University of California Berkeley, is in the Adelaide Lightning lineup.

Adelaide, coached by former Tall Ferns assistant coach Chris Lucas, return to the play-offs for the first time since 2013 and after finishing third in the regular season will face second placed Melbourne Boomers in one semi.

Current Tall Ferns Head Coach Guy Molloy is the Melbourne mentor and has Tall Ferns forward Kalani Purcell to lead his team’s defensive effort. Purcell is in her second season with the Boomers and leads the team in steals (1.5spg) and is second in rebounding (5.5rpg).

The first game of the best-of-three series is in Melbourne on Sunday January 27.

Toni Farnworth, like Purcell a Commonwealth Games silver medalist, captains the Perth Lynx that are appearing in a fourth straight semi-final. The experienced Farnworth and the Lynx are bidding to win their first championship.

Perth will face regular season champions Canberra Capitals with the opening game in Canberra on Friday January 25.

The Townsville Fire duo of Stella Beck and Micaela Cocks finished the season on a positive note with a 90-82 victory against Sydney Flames. Beck, promoted to the starting five, scored 10 points to accompany 5 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals. The win was not enough to carry the defending champions back to the play-offs, the Fire finishing fifth with a 10-12 record.

Stella Beck looks to drive past Toni Farnworth

There were a couple of editions of mate v mate, Tall Fern v Tall Fern, over the weekend in the Australian Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL).

Toni Farnworth filled the stats line for Perth Lynx in their visit to Townsville Fire on Friday but the Lynx were torched by the Fire 97-72. Farnworth only made 2 points but came up with a game high 6 assists to accompany 6 rebounds a block and a steal as she filled most of the stats categories.

Micaela Cocks is in hot form for the Fire at the moment and she came up with 14 points (4/8 3PG) and 4 assists whilst Stella Beck also chipped in with a couple of points for Townsville.

Over 2,000 home fans saw Melbourne Boomers come from behind to beat Adelaide Lightning 83-78 with Tall Ferns forward Kalani Purcell her normal vibrant self – 6 points, 5 rebounds, a steal and a block.

Penina Davidson, in her debut season for Adelaide, had a couple of points and a pair of rebounds as the Lightnings five game winning streak came to an end. The win lifts Melbourne past Perth to the top of the WNBL ladder.

WNBL Ladder (at 17.12.18)

10-5 Melbourne Boomers

9-5 Perth Lynx

8-5 Canberra Capitals

8-7 Adelaide Lightning

7-6 Dandenong Rangers

6-7 Townsville Fire

6-9 Bendigo Spirit

2-12 Sydney Flames

Micaela Cocks

Tall Fern Micaela Cocks has been appointed captain, at least in the short term, of Townsville Fire, three-tim Australian Women’s Basketball League champions.

The  long-time Tall Ferns guard captained the club in the absence of Suzy Batkovic in Friday night’s encounter with Adelaide Lightning.

Since joining the club in 2011/12, the Kiwi Olympian has represented the Fire on 193 occasions – second behind Rachael McCully (228) on the club’s all-time games’ list – and has played a key role in their championship successes.

Despite scoring a team high 17 points Cocks first outing as captain ended in disappointment as Townsville were defeated 85-70 on their home court by Adelaide. Stella Beck, in her first season out of St Mary’s College scored 4 points for the Fire but it was another New Zealand rookie-pro, Penina Davidson, that inflicted major damage on Cocks and her colleagues.

Penina Davidson

The former Cal Berkeley stand-out came up big for Adelaide posting 14 points (6/11FG), her best return of the season to date, and snared 5 rebounds.

Cocks added two assists and a pair of steals but it wasn’t enough for the Fire that slip to a 5-7 record. Just over half-way through the season the Fire are in need of some winning momentum but it doesn’t get any easier for them as next up they face Toni Farnworth and the table topping Perth Lynx (9-2).

Adelaide, after a fourth straight win, sit fourth on the WNBL ladder with a 7-6 record.

Perth Lynx captain Toni Farnworth played a captain’s knock as the Lynx made the most of home court advantage to defeat Townsville Fire 98-88 in the second round of the Australian National Basketball League (WNBL).

The Cantabrian wing scored 13 points and dished a team high 6 assists in Sunday’s win.

Fourty-eight hours earlier the Fire had claimed a road win at Adelaide defeating the Lightning 75-65 with Micaela Cocks adding 6 rebounds to 10 points.

Penina Davidson totaled 6 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals and an assist for the Lightning.

Lightning struck twice for Adelaide as they suffered a second loss of the weekend – 79-75 in Canberra against the Capitals. A handy 8 points and 7 rebounds for Davidson in that one.

Meanwhile in Hungary Jacinta Beckley and Ujbuda tasted success at the third time of asking this season defeating MTK 65-60. Beckley came off the bench for 17 minutes of play scoring 7 points to accompany 3 rebounds.

Jillian Harmon netted 16 points for Ragusa but her new club was defeated 75-72 by Venezia in Italian League action.

Tall Ferns guard Jacinta Beckley knocked down 4 from 8 three-point attempts in her second outing for BEAC Ujbuda in the Hungarian League.

Commencing her first professional contract the former Seattle University Redhawks championship winner  finished with 13 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals but Ujbuda slumped to a second straight loss to begin the season going down 86-55 at Atomeromu.

Beckley was of course a member of the successful Tall Ferns team that won the William Jones Cup back in July.