Away to Centrals, the Eastern women endured another comprehensive defeat in a 89-48 scoreline, but welcomed back Alex Wilson for her first game of the current season.

Wilson had been previously unavailable with State Basketball commitments at the National Championships held interstate.

The Mavericks women were not expected to win against the Lions, who are having their best ever start to a season.

Centrals have been strengthened by the recruitment of high profile players Jess Mahony who played last season in the WNBL with the Dandenong Rangers and the inclusion of 185cm American import Alisha Heglund.

Eastern went into the match without the services of centre Tracey Beatty, and also lost starting guard Madison Bycroft to injury as a result of a vehicle accident during the week.

Fortunately Bycroft’s injuries were only minor and she is expected to be available for the next round of matches.

Coach Nathon Jones and the women’s team endured another poor start, with the locals jumping out of the blocks to lead 8-0 before Candice Hartman and Chloe Henderson with a three-pointer added some respectability to the score.

By the end of the quarter Heglund finished with 8 points and 5 rebounds, and went on to be the eventual game high scorer with 16 points and 9 rebounds.

At quarter time the visitors trailed 13-27 with only Hartman able to convert more than one basket in the first period.

The Lions were playing a team game, sharing the ball around to create open shots and converted at 55 per cent.

During the second quarter Eastern mounted a mini fight back, mainly due to the outside shooting of Wilson and to a lesser extent Jo Robbertsen.

Robbertsen hit a three-pointer in the initial 2 minutes of the period, but Wilson then hit three three-pointers in the later part of the term, bringing the margin back to less than 10 points after her second conversion.

The Lions then re-grouped and by the half-time break had the margin back out to a comfortable 18 points when they led 48-30.

In a telling statistic, the Lions had amassed 20 assists in the first half, while Eastern were credited with only 6 assists for the same period.

At the conclusion of the match Jess Mahony finished with a rare triple double of 14 rebounds, 14 assists and 11 points to be the standout player for the match.

Eastern were no match for the Lions who had five players who finished with 10 points or greater.

Centrals Coach Tony Moore was able to freely rotate all his players throughout the match, but with Mahony in dominant form, she was rested for only 3 minutes during the game.

Contrastingly for Jones, the only positives from the game was the return of Alex Wilson who finished the team’s leading scorer with 12 points, while she pulled in the most rebounds for the Mavericks, finishing with eight.

Robbertsen was available to play after being concussed last round against the Southern Tigers, and she found her shooting touch from outside the arc, finishing with a tally of three three-pointers at 75 per cent.

Junior, Tara Rattus was brought in for her first senior game and saw minutes in the final quarter.

Eastern Mavericks 48 ( A Wilson 12, C Henderson, J Robbertsen 11) lost to the Central District Lions 89.

By David Tonks