Women’s QBL Grand Finals Series – Hegvold Stadium, Rockhampton
Rockhampton Cyclones vs Gladstone Port City Power
Friday 28 August – 7:00pm
Saturday 29 August – 7:00pm
Sunday 30 August – 1:00pm (only if required)
The continued dominance of the Northern Pool is on show again at the pointy end of the season, with the two overall best teams headed into the QBL Grand Final Series coming from Central Queensland after impressive and hard fought Semi-Final victories.
The Power seemed to retain their early season dominant form against a tough Ipswich Force outfit who managed to push them for the entire game before eventually suffering a 74-66 defeat in the semi-final. Gladstone’s defence was really on show that game, only allowing 66 points to Ipswich who apart from QBL MVP Chelsie Schweers, struggled to find the range. Take nothing away from the Power though; the trio of Henderson, Walker and Mellars dominated the paint from start to finish, with each notching up double-digit rebound games. They will need be on show again this weekend, as Jones and Brady for the Cyclones continued to dominant as they have all season, and Bundaberg unfortunately felt the full brunt of their output. The Rockhampton crowd would have been celebrating at quarter-time as their much-loved Cyclones dominated the first quarter and led by 13 points at the end of the term. However a poor third quarter put the Bears back in the game, before the sheer class of the Cyclones showed up again for the last quarter, rallying a 26 point final quarter and thus a 81-71 semi-final victory.
The Power and Cyclones met twice throughout the regular season, with the same result occurring twice in as many weeks. The Cyclones dominated both outings and will be full of confidence that the trophy is rightfully theirs come the weekend. The inside dominance of Rockhampton was clearly on show, with the usual suspects of Michaels, Jones and Norwood featuring in what was a poetic display on how to win a basketball game. The Power will need huge performances from Willey, Henderson, Mellars and Walker to counteract this and put a lid on the vocal home crowd. However, as they’ve done this all season, the Power coaching staff will be extremely confident that their team can get it done and cap off this great season with a championship.
The Cyclones are boasting an ever impressive seven-game winning streak and will be tough to beat at Hegvold Stadium, however if Gladstone can retain their mid-season form which had them atop of the league ladder, then they are a serious chance at brewing up a devastating upset!
