Posted on 9 May, 2012

The Swinburne Kilsyth Lady Cobras took down another SEABL opponent in this weekend’s match up whilst the Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras suffered a road loss against the Albury Wodonga Bandits.  With the victory, the Swinburne Lady Cobras move to 6-2 in SEABL play and maintain their second place rank as the Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras drop to 4-5 and fourth place on the ladder.

The Swinburne Lady Kilsyth Cobras got off to a poor start against the Lady Bandits, committing three turnovers in a row to allow the Lady Bandits to jump out to an early 7-0 lead.  But the Swinburne Lady Kilsyth Cobras quickly changed the tempo and took control of the game, taking the lead with 1:27 left in the first quarter and keeping it the rest of the way. 

At the halfway point, the Swinburne Lady Kilsyth Cobras had strung together a comfortable ten point lead, heading into the locker room up 40-30, but they were not in the clear just yet.  The Lady Bandits answered back in the third quarter thanks to the hot shooting of Rachel Matthys.  Matthys got the Bandits back in the game, scoring 10 of her 20 points in the last 2:20 stretch of the third period.  With two jumpers and back to back three point baskets, the Swinburne Lady Kilsyth Cobras saw their lead cut down to just three points as they entered the fourth quarter up 54-51.

The Swinburne Lady Kilsyth Cobras dominated the fourth quarter and squelched any hopes the Lady Bandits may have had of a comeback.  The Swinburne Lady Kilsyth Cobras outscored the Bandits 24-12 in the fourth and took the game with a 78-63 final score. 

The Swinburne Lady Kilsyth Cobras managed to outrebound the Lady Bandits by five and scored 38 of their 78 points from the paint.  Three scorers hit double digits, Chantella Perera with 25 points, followed by Hayley Moffatt and Sarah Parsons with 15 and 11 points respectively as well as eight rebounds apiece. 

The Swinburne Lady Kilsyth Cobras travel to Frankston Saturday 12 May 2012 to face the Blues.  They return home Saturday 19 May to face Canberra on Hugh McMenamin Court.  Tip off is at 6:15pm. 

The outcome was much different for the Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras.  When time ran out, the Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras found themselves on the losing end of the spectrum, going down 95-78 to the Bandits.  The Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras were unable to make the necessary changes to clean up their game and instead nabbed their second loss in a row. 

The Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras battled in the first quarter and were in the mix despite turnover troubles.  The period ended with the Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras down 25-18.  Early in the second period, a basket by Auryn MacMillan brought the Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras to within just five points.  But the Bandits closed out the quarter on a scoring run of their own, going into the halftime up 13 points at 47-34.

Despite their efforts, the Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras faced their biggest deficit with four minutes left in the third quarter as they found themselves down by 25 points.  Seemingly nothing could help the Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras get back on track as the Bandits’ offence could not be slowed, but enter the young brigade of Adam Knott, Cameron Johnson and Keiran Murphy who battled hard to reduce the margin to 13 with 0.05 seconds left in the third.  Then a prayer from Bandits Alex Opacic at the buzzer stretched the margin to 16 and took all the wind out of the Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras’ sails. 

While the two teams were nearly even on the boards (32-30), the Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras committed 18 turnovers which the Bandits converted to easy points. 

Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras’ leading scorer Garfield Blair again led the way offensively with 25 points, followed closely by post player Auryn MacMillan who dropped in 21 points and collected 11 rebounds. 

The Swinburne Kilsyth Cobras travel to Frankston Saturday 12 May 2012 to face the Blues.  They return home Saturday 19 May to face Canberra on Hugh McMenamin Court.  Tip off is at 8:15pm.