Shark attacks claim Panthers in NBL1 East

BY NOEL ROWSELL

THE Penrith Panthers senior men’s and women’s basketball teams have both lost away games to the Sutherland Sharks on Saturday night, in Round 11 of the 2023 Coles Express NBL1 East competition.

With playing numbers seemingly ever-declining in the Penrith women’s team, this week’s roster was impacted by yet another 3 absentees, Kelsey Waugh, Chiara Porter and starting guard Dominika Faber, with the latter having announced her pregnancy and will now sit out the remainder of the season.

Panthers head coach Bernie Slattery introduced another two young faces in Georgia Toscan and Afdeet Deylo and unsurprisingly, it proved a tough initiation for the newcomers, as the Panthers were crushed 99-47.

Penrith could not get any momentum in the first 2 quarters, trailing 24-8 and 44-16 at the first two breaks in play, then both sides lifted their scoring rate in the third term to have the Sharks leading 74-33 at the final break, before cruising home to a 52-point win.

“Chiara Porter has a broken hand and Kelsey Waugh had personal commitments, but we needed a lot more than that to go against (Sharks guard) Lauren Nicolson,” said Panthers head coach Bernie Slattery.

“They (Sutherland) were up by 40 in the fourth quarter and still pressing full court. Very demoralising for our young kids, and somewhat unethical of them (Sharks).

“We go to Canberra this week and they have just brought in a 6’2” (188cm) scorer (returned from College) and they flogged Bankstown at the weekend.

“After this weekend, we have the long weekend off and then a winnable home game against Inner

West Bulls where Tahlia Tupaea is scheduled to play limited minutes in preparation for the Asia Cup, where she will play for NZ.”

Five Sutherland players hit double figures in the game, led by Nicholson 22, Aliza Fabbro 20 and Olivia White 13 points, 11 boards. Meg Jefferson hit 11 of Penrith’s 17 successful shots in the game to lead the Panthers with 26 points, ahead of Kate Pozoglou with 13 boards and 5 assists.

The Penrith men also trailed from the outset, behind 23-15 at the first break, 44-31 at half time and 67-51 at the final break in play. The Panthers outscored the Sharks 28-25 in the final term but it wasn’t enough to trouble the home team, which went on to record a 13-point win.

Five Sutherland players hit double figures, led by Marquel Beasley 22 points, 9 boards; Jordan Mitchell 18 points, 7 assists and Deng Gak 13 points, 9 boards, 6 assists. Caleb Fetui-Fa’amoe led the Panthers with 22 points, ahead of Jaedyn FetuiFa’amoe 11 and Preston Matia 10.

The Panthers are on the road again this weekend, taking on the 10th-placed Canberra Nationals (women) at 5pm and the 5th-placed Canberra Gunners (men) at 7pm. Both games to be played at the Belconnen Basketball Stadium.