BASKETBALL
CBL
BY BLAKE METCALF-HOLT
MAGICAL beyond compare.
Morwell added its first Country Basketball League women’s championship at the weekend, coming in dramatic fashion over Korumburra by three points.
Arriving to Cardinia Life Aquatic and Recreation Centre, Pakenham, the grand final was truly a matchup of giants as the two sides combined for just two losses throughout the season.
The Magic ran through the regular season undefeated until its final game against the Wildcats in Round 8, which came in a one-point thriller.
A tale of two halves played out in the big dance, as Morwell almost seemed out of place when the ball was thrown up to begin proceedings.
The more experienced Korumburra, who won back-to-back CBL women’s titles in both 2023 seasons (in a previous life, CBL seasons played across years with a Christmas-New Years break in between), blew past the Magic in the first quarter.
Despite Morwell starting well with a 10-3 lead, the Wildcats responded routinely, beginning with Gemma Dixon scoring five quick points and then handing over the reins to Krystal Arnason as Korumburra went into the first break with a nine-point lead.
Even with a necessary pause in play, it got worse for the Magic as the second quarter opened, as the Wildcats made their early successes look easy.
Rebounding became a clear issue for Morwell, as Korumburra featured a much bigger line-up, which also equalled a disadvantage when Wildcats players made their way closer to the basket.
As such, Korumburra went even further ahead with an 8-2 run, while the Magic continued to deliver sloppy turnovers.
Kayla Welsh hoped to get Morwell back on track with a tough and-1 bucket inside however, Chelsea Fox responded immediately by drilling a three-pointer for the Wildcats.
The Magic increased their output through to halftime and began to rival Korumburra’s offensive charge.
Morwell still faced a 14-point deficit at the main break, in part due to the Wildcats nailing seven three-pointers in the first half alone.
A more fluent game launched as play returned, with the Magic beginning to get out in transition by forcing the Wildcats into making tough choices.
An out of nowhere 13-5 run erupted the stadium, as Morwell found a groove not seen prior in the match.
Korumburra was forced into a timeout after Abbey Noblett willed the Magic to the closest position they’d seen in some time with a neat put back lay in.
The Wildcats continued to cost themselves a shot at redeeming their defensive faults, coughing the ball up, as the Magic found new life through gang rebounding, which equalled plenty of second chance opportunities.
Young gun Olivia Ouchirenko comfortably knocked down a deep three to cut the Wildcats’ lead to one possession, and with five seconds left in the third term, Morwell pushed the ball up from a dead ball with Jordan Pyle zipping the rock to Makaela Zeldenryk, who missed the corner triple, but saw Welsh steal the ball out of the air and score on the buzzer.
Down by a point with a quarter spare, the game was there for the taking for the Magic.
Almost immediately to begin the final spurt, Pyle completed a slick reverse layup to send Morwell ahead for the first time since the opening minutes of the grand final.
The scoreboard became stuck on 69-all for a painstaking period of time, as poor passes and missed shots became the norm, until Shantelle Thorburn broke the deadlock for the Magic with a monster three-pointer.
Morwell went ahead further, with Pyle unselfishly and acutely dishing off to Zeldenryk on the fastbreak and then Noblett finished another put back score to extend the lead to six points with less than two minutes remaining.
Korumburra refused to give in, with Alahna Arnason finishing a short floater, and then Chelsea Fox swishing an all-important three-pointer to bring the margin back to one-point.
As Morwell made its move on one of the final possessions of the game, Magic fans’ nerves went through the roof as Noblett was issued for a charge, handing her a fifth foul and thus eliminating her from the game.
The Wildcats had the chance to take the lead in the dying seconds, with Arnason making her way inside for another floater, which banged of the backboard and missed.
After the foul game was initiated, by the time the final buzzer sounded, Magic players went into a riot and embraced each other like never before.
Despite not having their coach available on the day with Daniel Scholtes absent, Andrew Whannell stepped up to lead the bench and Pyle took on added responsibilities as team captain, making sure Morwell still got the job done and capped off a sensational and historic season.
Welsh was deservedly awarded the grand final most valuable player (MVP) award, finishing with 22 points for the Magic.
