A game high 16 points from Caitlin Colliver and a more disciplined performance from Melissa Lee wasn’t enough to save the Dubbo Rams from their second successive defeat in round two of the State League series played on Saturday night.
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Penrith Panthers came here after dropping their first game against Central Coast Power and on the back of some strong defence and a better shooting percentage than the Rams were able to power home in last quarter to win 59-53.
In a double disappointment for the Rams camp, their men were shut out 107-92 by Penrith in the late game.
While Rams women’s coach Nick Hubbard was disappointed with the result he could see some positives.
“We have a couple of more seasoned players and some young ones, so it’s going to take us some time to get things right,” he said.
“Like last week we started well but fell away and we’ll have to overcome that problem.
“We worked hard during the week on discipline and to cut out unnecessary fouls and that worked out marginally better.
“There is however more work to be done ahead of the game against Central Coast Crusaders back here in Dubbo next Saturday.”
The Rams got out of the blocks with some excellent shooting in the first 10 minutes building up a 21-16 lead at the first break before both sides shared the honours with 13 points each in the second period, with the home side still leading by 34-29 at half-time.
In this same period captain Monique Storch and Alex Klaassens had racked up four fouls each. Klaassens was out of the game five minutes into the third quarter while Storch lasted until four minutes from the final siren.
The vital third quarter was a good one for the visitors and their better communication in defence and in scoring positions set them up nicely to finish the stronger.
They won the third session 17-11 to lead 46-45 and did what they needed to do in the run home with a 13 points to 8 advantage to win by six.
The Rams needed cool heads to set up scoring opportunities in the final stages but it didn’t happen. The Penrith defence worked overtime and created a simple screen to shut down easy scoring opportunities for the Rams.
Colliver led the scoring for the Rams with 16 points, followed by Lee with 13, Monique Storch (8), Rebecca Rattey (6), Heidi Ryan (4), Alex Klaassens 3, Briony Egan (2) and Gabi Herbert (1).
In her first game in three years for the Dubbo side, Rattey showed she will be a good acquisition for the Rams but they could miss Shannon Mathes who has retired after only one game.
Next Saturday at Dubbo Sports World the Rams men and women both host Central Coast Crusaders with game times at 4pm and 6pm.
