Phoenix burnt by slow start in Raiders’ win

Phoenix were made to pay for a slow start as the Raiders under-18 development squad jumped to a 20-point first-up win in their Albany Basketball Association women’s A-grade contest on Tuesday night.

Phoenix, who started the match with the bare five players, never recovered against the nippy Raiders, who found too many avenues to the basket, especially in the first half.

Trailing by 15 points at half-time after only scoring three points for the first half, Phoenix fought out the contest in the second half, but the margin proved too great to overcome.

Eight of the 10 Raiders players got on the scoresheet in a positive even spread of contributors for the Darren Berry-coached side.

Narelle Humphries banged in 10 points, while sister Nardia chipped in with a valuable eight points and Indianna Weedon was dangerous with seven.

Cass Cheetham led the scoring for Phoenix with six points.

In the other round 2 contest, Magpies held off a fast-finishing Flames to register their first win of the season by two points.

Flames led for a 10-minute period in the first half, but Jasmyne Jones (17 points) and Narrelle Humphries (13) began to find their range to guide Magpies to the lead by seven points at half-time.

The margin reached as high as 10 points in the second half, but Flames responded to trim the margin back to a solitary point with less than 10 minutes left on the clock.

Jones and Humphries continued to have the answers and Magpies appeared certain to earn the win, but Flames rallied again to score eight of the last 10 points of the match in the final three minutes almost to pinch the win, losing 42-40.

Shianne Arthur was instrumental for Flames, finishing with 13 points, and received solid support from Indianna Weedon, Alyssa Ward and Brittany Mariah, who all added seven points in a promising display