Forestville 75 (Mia Newley 27, Jess Mahony 20, Jess Fergus 16, Jamie-Lee Bow 8) defeated

Central Districts 59 (Amber Land 20, Fiona Perso 16, Dayna Roberts 11)

The Lions outfit surprised many by leading for the majority of the contest against the top placed Eagles. In an even first quarter with Fiona Perso and Amber Land amongst the scorers, the Lions held a 1 point margin at the first break 14-13. In the second period with six scorers the locals were able to edge out a 9 point margin just before halftime when they led 35-26. In the 3rd quarter, Centrals maintained the ascendancy and never surrendered the lead, helped by 3 pointers from Dayna Roberts and Shenae Hosking. By the end of the quarter the Eagles had ominously closed the margin to a basket with the ‘big three’ in Mia Newley, Jess Fergus and Jess Mahony doing the damage. The first basket of the last quarter to Fergus levelled the scores 50-50 and from that point the Lions were never able to regain control. In the final quarter Newley lifted her side to victory scoring 19 points for the term. The Lions had no answer to her dominance on the scoreboard. Amber Land did score 6 points during the last and finished the highest scorer for the Lions with 20 points. She also pulled down 24 rebounds on the night. As a result of weekend games Forestville now sit clear at the top of the table, 1 game clear of Sturt with 2 rounds left to play.

Eastern 80 (Tess Madgen 33, Deb Wilcox 10, Jamie Fricker 8) defeated

South Adelaide 59 (Claire Johnson, Ursula Richards 15, Rachael Litster 8)

Both teams were on 5 wins entering this match and both were given an even money chance of claiming a win based on recent form. Eastern won the first half by 2 points, scores 38-36 at the long break. Eastern’s Tess Madgen compiled 21 points and Claire Johnson for South had 10 points.  Those two players were their team’s leading scorers at halftime. In the first half there were 11 lead changes and the scores were tied on 5 occasions. Both Eastern and South were unable to establish a winning break, with the margin just a couple of points between the sides for the half. Converted foul shots to Maverick Deb Wilcox and two 3 pointers to Madgen just before the siren were the reason Eastern was able to edge out the slender lead at halftime. The Eastern women blew the game open in the third with Madgen, Wilcox and Danni Clayton all scoring before South could engineer a basket. As the term wore on the margin only increased and by the end of the third period Eastern had set up a match winning break of 20 points to lead 66-46. After 5 minutes of play in the last, Eastern added a further 10 points without reply to extend the margin out to 30 points. South struggled on the scoreboard with only Claire Johnson and Ursula Richards in double figures. Eastern’s ability to score inside the paint was a significant factor in the win with the shooting percentage listed at 54% from 61 shots taken. South took significantly more shots (90) but only converted at 26%. 

Southern 79 (Rosalie Cutri 25, Gilly Hendrie 11, Teresa Kinross 10) defeated

Norwood 71 (Kate Gladstone, Jess Hansberry 15, Amanda MacDermot 11, Cara Boothey 7)

Southern along with Forestville are one of the form teams of the women’s competition, having won 7 of their last 8 matches. Norwood was in good form prior to Round 11 but the loss of several key players over recent weeks has hurt them. Southern took a while to get going in the first quarter. A basket to Rosalie Cutri at 6:21 gave the Tigers the lead 8-7 and for the remainder the period the Tigers outscored the Flames 19-9 to establish a handy break at quarter time. Early baskets to Gilly Hendrie and Teresa Kinross in the second allowed the Tigers to slip away to a 16 point buffer 34-18. That margin was maintained for most of the quarter, although at times, it got out to as much as 20 points. After halftime Southern appeared to be maintaining control until a pair of 3 pointers from Jess Hansberry late in the quarter gave Norwood the momentum to close the margin. After Breanna Gleeson converted a pair of foul shots with 56 seconds left only 2 points separated the sides (56-54). Southern were able to extend the margin to 5 points at the last break 59-54. Early baskets in the last to Ashleigh Spencer and a 3 pointer to Alexandra Ciabattoni opened up a mini break of 10 points, 64-54. Norwood did close to within 6 points with under 2 minutes of play remaining but the Tigers kept control running out 8 point victors. The win keeps Southern level with North and Norwood on 9 wins - that trio are locked in a 3 way battle for 4th and 5th spot. 

North Adelaide 74 (Marisa Stabile 14, Tayla Corbell, Jo Hill 13, Kirsty Williams 12) defeated Woodville 45 (Brittany Mickan-Winter 11, Katherine Perkas 10, Claire Christie 7)

North stayed on track for a finals berth when they had the biggest win of the women’s round defeating the Woodville Warriors by 29 points 74-45. The win was set up with a dominant first half when they outscored Woodville 32-17. Woodville couldn’t buy a basket in the first quarter with only 1 conversion from the floor by April Brown; all their other points were scored from the foul line. North had 6 scorers with Tayla Corbell leading the way. North had a quieter second quarter but a pair of 3 pointers to Kirsty Williams helped set up the half time lead of 15 points. In the third period North increased the margin which was helped by three pointers from Shannon McKay, Corbell and Lauren Badenoch (two). In the last quarter the Rockets blew the margin out further to lead by 30 points,62-32 after Marisa Stabile scored with 7:31 remaining. North stretched that out to 37 points before Woodville reduced the margin late in the quarter courtesy of 3 pointers from Claire Christie and Eliza Cummins. On the night Woodville took 12 more shots than North but had a poor conversion rate of 22.1% compared to North’s 44.6%. Outside the arc the Rockets were also superior, connecting on 8/22 @ 36.4% as opposed to Woodville who hit only 3/27 @ 11.1%. The win keeps North locked in a 3 way battle to claim either 4th or 5th place.

West Adelaide 59 (Sam Woosnam 16, Nikita-Lee Martin, Ashlea Vordermaier 12) defeated 

Sturt 50 (Monique Bowley 16, Bree Farley 11, Hannah Richards 9, Kara Hargreaves 8) 

In the clash of 2nd (Sturt) versus 3rd (West), little separated the two sides throughout the closely fought contest. During the first quarter Sturt slipped away to a 6 point margin with 3:28 to play after Monique Bowley scored twice for the Sabres and Kara Hargreaves followed that up with a basket. With a late score to Meg McLeod and two baskets to Nikita-Lee Martin scores were level at the first break 15-15. Both sides found it hard to come by baskets in the second term in a low scoring encounter. By halftime West had edged clear by 2 points 26-24, with both Ashlea Vordermaier and Bree Farley scoring more than once. The scoring rate improved in the third with Vordermaier and Bowley doing the bulk of the scoring in this period with 3 baskets each. By the end of the third, West held a 5 point buffer 42-37. In the last term the teams traded baskets with West able to hang onto the lead. Only three points separated the sides with 1:50 remaining after Kara Hargreaves for the Sabres scored, scores 48-45. In the final minutes West outscored Sturt 11-5 with Sam Woosnam doing the damage from the foul line hitting 5 out of 6 shots taken in the last 37 seconds. Woosnam was only 2 rebounds short of a triple double when she amassed 16 points, 8 rebounds and 12 assists in 40 minutes of court time.