QSL Recap vs Gold Coast

The SmartSkill North Gold Coast Seahawks Women and Seahawks Men’s team faced up against rivals, Gold Coast Rollers, on Saturday night.

Both teams were coming in undefeated, and the SmartSkill Women’s team didn’t disappoint in the first game of the evening.

Seahawks Junior Charli Reece (20 points, 8 rebounds) started the game off hot, dominating the paint on both ends of the floor, showing her versatility between being able to finesse as well as her physical presence giving the young Rollers squad plenty of trouble down low.

Veteran and captain, Lauren Jansen, continued her dominant start to the season with a mountain of work again, finishing the game with 16 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.

Not to be outshone by little sister Lauren, Taylor Harvey came in and gave her side plenty of energy and in little over 18 minutes collected a stat line of 5 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal to top off a great night for the women.

Head Coach Bradley Kann was pleased with his team’s effort.

“I thought we did an incredible job on the boards on both ends of the floor, particularly in that second half where we continued to create second chance opportunities” said Kann.

“I still think we have a lot of improvement on the offensive end where we have really struggled to shoot the ball well, but knowing some of the team have barely played due to COVID and returning to basketball, I know that will come”

“I’d also like to see us close games out better than what we have” said Kann.

“We really need to show that foot on the throat mentality, but all in all it was a fantastic victory for our side”

Looking for the clean sweep of the night, the Seahawks Men showed why they are a real contender in the QSL1 division, going into halftime up 9 and in full control of the game.

Even though he was a game time decision, veteran David Gurney (25 points, 9 rebounds) really showed his squad what it takes to play at a high level, even throwing it back to his younger days with a near poster dunk that would have torn the house down.

Bigs Wilson Page (8 points, 8 rebounds) and Spencer Taleni (6 points, 8 rebounds) protected the paint and brought physicality to a match that was going to be won by whoever won the rebound count.

The second half saw the resurgence of the young Gold Coast team, taking the 3rd quarter

26 – 15 and stormed back into the game.

The 4th quarter saw a tight back and forth contest, with big play after big play from Rhys Martin (12 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals) and none bigger than Gurney's 3 to tie the match with less than 30 seconds on the clock.

But it wasn’t to be for our Seahawks, with the Rollers getting themselves to the foul line to get up 2 and putting on a solid defensive stance for the last play of the game, forcing Jesse Lomax into a corner 3 which rimmed out.

Head Coach for the Seahawks Men Jordan Mullan was disappointed to not get away with the win.

“I thought we hung tough for the majority of the game, but our ill-discipline really got the best of us with 15 turnovers for the game” said Mullan.

“That on top of missing 10 foul shots for the game essentially cost us a win”

“But we know that this season is a journey for us and it’s an experience for our juniors being around these more seasoned players and understanding how to close games out”

Our first Home game of the season is this Saturday night, with the first of the games being our QSL Men’s 2 team playing at 4pm vs Ipswich, 6pm and 8pm for our QSL1 teams vs Logan.

Tickets to be purchased at: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/qsl-triple-header-qsl-1-v-logan-qsl-2-v-ipswich-tickets-151750835835