PORTLAND has claimed its first Country Basketball League premiership following an emphatic grand final victory by the Coasters women.

Portland headed into the South West Conference finals having not beaten either of the top two teams during the regular season, but emerged triumphant following two weeks of near perfect basketball.

After beating Mt Gambier at Mt Gambier in last weekend’s semi-final, the Coasters were even more impressive in Saturday night’s grand final at Horsham, dismantling the Warrnambool Mermaids 71-49.

Not that it was all plain sailing for the Coasters, who had to reshape their structure with talls Kayla Pickert and Toni Rowe, as well one of the stars from the semi-final win, Tyleah Barr, all unavailable for the play-off.

“In the end it worked in our favour a bit,” Portland coach Ellen Zeunert said.

“Warrnambool were a bigger team, but speaking to (Mermaids coach) Katie O’Keefe after the game, she said they couldn’t keep up with our pace.

“That was our game plan, wear them down, run them off their feet, keep up-tempo, keep pushing the ball down the court.

“We played the trap pretty much all game, and we were able to throw them off their set plays and throw them off their rhythm.”

Defence the key

Just as Zeunert had hoped, Portland started the game well with defence the key, restricting the Mermaids to just 10 points in the first quarter and only seven in the second, to establish an 18-point buffer.

“Defence wins games, I’ve always believed that.

“We restricted them to their (equal) lowest score of the season, they were averaging in the 70s.

“We played the press well, took time off the clock.

“We were dictating the terms in defence, being proactive, and that rattled their ball movement.

“We really shut down on Leah Bartlett (10 points), we worked really well as a team on restricting her; and Molly McKinnon (11 points) is a three-point shooter and we were able to restrict her as well.”

And while that came from every player on the court, the role of Alana Strom was particularly important.

“Alana was massive, to have her as the stopper at the end is such a big thing for us.

“She rebounds really well, rejects shots, and it is really hard for the opposition to shoot over her long arms.

“She was huge in defence.

“I was surprised she only had four points because she had such a big impact on the game.

“Points do win games but it shows they are not the key factor – it takes all facets of the game to win.”

Portland was able to maintain the pressure on Warrnambool for the duration of the match, winning the third quarter 18-15 and the last 18-17 for a 22-point victory.

“There were some ebbs and flows in the match, we knew that would be the case.

“You can’t have the momentum all the way through, especially in finals.

“We went off the boil a bit in the second half, got a bit jittery, but we pulled it back together.

“That came down to going back to the basics and doing the small things well.”

Team performance

With Pickert and Rowe missing the match – such important rebounding players – Zeunert was thrilled with the performance of Heidi Jones.

“Heidi stepped into the number four spot; she played in an unfamiliar position and did a fantastic job for us.

“And Rhi (Davis) had her best game of the season, did a lot of the hard work to the benefit of the team, helping out Alana rebounding.”

The grand final most valuable player award went to Portland captain Nicola Handreck, who finished the game with 17 points.

“We got out of the blocks really well and Nicola set the tone.

“She knocked down two threes and a two, and had our first eight points of the game.

“Having played at a high level she just has such great composure and leadership.

“She knows when to turn it on, knows when to pull the team back and settle when needed.”

Portland again had a great spread of scoring with nine players getting on the board, headed by Millie Jennings’ 21 points.

“The scoring has been spread from the whole team all season.

“When you have that the opposition has to respect all the players and it is such an advantage to have, because that then opens up the scoring opportunities for everyone.

“Our ball movement was so good, and everyone has a licence to shoot if you are open and we encourage them that if they see a lane then take it to the basket.

“Courtney Gadsden is an example of that. We bring her on, she bangs down a three, the opposition then has to get out to her and that then opens the court for others.

“Millie (Jennings) was the one who benefitted in this game.

“She has been playing great all season, getting better every game. She is such a natural athlete, tenacious, and defensively doing a great job.

“Katie (Zeunert) is similar, very hard at it, Sarah (Tunstall) the same and such a fast player.

“Summer (Millard) didn’t get much game time, but she has such a bright future, and this experience will be great for her development.”

First title

Since the CBL formed the women’s South West Conference in 2011-12, this was Portland’s first title victory – having been runners-up in 2011-12, 2013-14 and 2017-18.

The Coasters were unable to field a side in 2019-20 and while they had the numbers to do so in 2020-21, there wasn’t enough other teams to be able to run the competition in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

“It has been a great competition,” Zeunert said of the 2021-22 campaign.

“All the teams have had issues, mainly due to COVID, but we got through.

“The organisers have done really well to keep the competition going, especially with Mt Gambier and restrictions in place there on the other side of the border.

“It has been a strong season and really any of the top four teams could have taken it out.

“Hopefully by next season things will have settled down a bit more with COVID and we can get a few more teams back in.

“We’ll look forward to that, but for now we’ll just enjoy what we have achieved.”

Portland Coasters                 22            35            53            71

Warrnambool Mermaids       10            17            32            49

Portland: Millie Jennings 21; Nicola Handreck 17; Rhi Davis 6; Heidi Jones 6; Sarah Tunstall 6; Katie Zeunert 5; Alana Strom 4; Courtney Gadsden 4; Summer Millard 3.

Warrnambool: Katie O’Keefe 18; Molly McKinnon 11; Leah Bartlett 10; Molly McLaren 3; Mia Mills 3; Ava Bishop 2; Cigi Lual 2.

Award winners:

Nicola Handreck      Grand final MVP

Alana Strom             CBL season defensive player of the year