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Sharna Appleby had a strong game with 23 points including five threes, while game MVP Madeline Sexton wasn\u2019t far back, sinking 19.<\/p>\n
\u201cSharna Appleby was our little diamond in the rough,\u201d Dufelmeier said. \u201cShe really held us together and got us over the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe hit big points, had big stops, and big defensive plays down the stretch when we needed them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother quiet achiever was Sophie Perkins, who hasn\u2019t scored a lot this season but done a lot of the off-ball stuff that you don\u2019t see on the stat line, but she came out and hit back-to-back-to-back points.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win means repeat country league titles for the Braves and two MVPs in a row for Sexton.<\/p>\n
When the men\u2019s game got underway it was a rematch of last season, albeit with home court advantage flipped as the Braves took on the Maryborough Blazers on their home turf.<\/p>\n
In front of an amped up crowd, Bendigo was forced to deal with on and off court challenges, but got the job done by a 64-53 margin.<\/p>\n
The Blazers took a quick early lead, before the Braves dropped the hammer, up 37-19 at the half, although Maryborough came with the push back, only for Bendigo to see off the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very physical game, physically demanding on both sides,\u201d said Braves coach Clayton Bell.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came back pretty hard late in the third and in the first few minutes of the fourth-quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew they would always come back at us. So we were expecting that and kept trying to drum that home to the boys that\u2019ll be making another couple of runs at us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contributions came from all over the roster with Jack White sinking a game high 18 points, including four critical threes to hold the Blazers\u2019 comeback at bay.<\/p>\n
Game MVP Trent Leech was not far behind with 17 points that came on top of his task marking Maryborough\u2019s best in Brady Neill.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe [Leech] had a defensive assignment, and kept him to 14 points,\u201d said Bell. \u201cTo be able to do that against a quality player and then score himself at the other end, you can easily see why he was the MVP.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jake Lloyd was also a key contributor with 12 points, three from the free-throw line, two inside the arc and one three.<\/p>\n
With a range of contributors across the roster, Bell said the squad has been lucky that many have been able to pitch in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been fortunate during the year as we\u2019ve generally had a good spread of scoring,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With the shortened Country League season coming to an end, many of the players on both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s rosters will now be looking towards Big-V – which starts this weekend – and NBL1 South action set to get underway in mid-April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IT was all smiles in Maryborough on Saturday night as the Bendigo Braves men and women Country League sides both raised North West Division premiership trophies. Tipping off in the early 5pm slot, the women\u2019s side went up against the Kyneton Tigers and eventually came away with a 73-50 win, although Braves coach Bianca Dufelmeier […]<\/p>\n