NBL1 & BigV Falcons

Falcons Big V Season Review: Champ Women
17/08/2015

Now that the Falcons Big V 2015 campaign has run its course, this week we'll be having a look at how our teams fared in season 2015. The State Championship Women once again figured in finals action, let's have a look at their season.

The Falcons' season started on a fantastic note, winning the pre-season tournament at Dandenong and taking that form into an opening round double-header with strong wins. Some choppy form set upon the Falcons, suffering a suprisingly heavy loss to the new team Southern Peninsula, and splitting a weekend against eventual finalists, defeating Hume City by one point, before falling to Southern Pen, also by one point.

The Falcons then entered a strong run, winning four straight, before the injury bug began to take it's toll. WNBL star Tegan Cunningham succumed to season-ending injury problems, and running mate Carly Mijovic was on national duties with the Australian University Games team.

During a late season stretch, the undermanned Falcons remained competitive but struggled to keep the wins ticking over. Nonetheless, they did enough to earn a finals spot and faced Bulleen in an elimination final. Despite trailing most of the game, the Falcons made a stirring run before falling just short, with a two point loss ending their season.

It was a third straight year making it to post-season action, and along the way there were some noteworthy individual efforts.

Forward Carly Mijovic proved to be an absolute scoring machine in the Big V, as shown by her season averages of 24.5 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. Carly scored double figures every game she played in a campaign punctuated by some massive performances. Some of the best were her 38 point, 11 rebound explosion against McKinnon including 6/9 from three point territory; her combined 57 points and 24 rebounds in a two-game weekend against Hume City and Southern Pen and a 33 point, 19 rebound effort against Sherbrooke where she played just 31 minutes. There were stacks more big games from the MVP candidate over the season.

Despite an early end to the season, Tegan Cunningham gave fans plenty to cheer about in her second year at the Falcon Nest. Averaging a 19 and 10 double-double, Cunningham was especially fond of playing Bulleen, with games of 25 points and 16 rebounds; and 28 points and 13 rebounds against the Boomers. Tegan made a point of stepping up against the good teams, with her other 20+ games coming against Grand Finalists Ringwood and Hume City.

The Falcons' depth was tested at times throughout the season, but good performances along the way from the likes of Tahlia Higgs, Adrianna Cann and Caitlin Cunningham helped steer the Falcons to another finals berth under coach Elias Palioyiannis.

The Falcons will aim to keep the run of playoff appearances going next season, and possibly take a step further into August action.

How did out other Big V teams go this season? Check here:

Victorian Youth Championship Women: http://www.waverleybasketball.com/news_item.aspx?id=1039

Victorian Youth Championship Men: http://www.waverleybasketball.com/news_item.aspx?id=1035