AUS - Harrower wins third Player of the Week

SYDNEY (WNBL) - Australian Defence Force Opal Kristi Harrower has been named the Nivea Player of the Week for Round 18 of the ADF Women's National Basketball League, the third time she has won the title this season.

The Bendigo Spirit guard scored game-high numbers to successfully lead her team on a crucial road double.

The Spirit secured fifth spot on the ladder and their first ADF WNBL finals berth on Friday night after a solid performance to defeat a desperate Sydney Uni Flames side 84-74 in Sydney.

Playing her 200th game in the league Harrower posted an equal game-high 21 points and grabbed an equal team-high six rebounds. She also dished 10 assists, the highest number in the game.

It was a must win game for both teams; if Sydney Uni had won they would have had a slim chance of beating Bendigo into the playoffs but as the Flames were leading with three minutes left to play in the first half the Australian point guard posted five points and three assists to engineer a 14-1 run, and give the Spirit an unassailable nine-point lead.

Harrower backed up her effort against the Flames against the Dandenong Rangers on Saturday night in Dandenong. She led all scorers with 25 points including a lethal 8-of-8 from the charity stripe and grabbed another six rebounds, three steals and three assists.

On the best winning streak in the league at the moment (6-0) Harrower said the Spirit is playing with a lot of self-belief.

"I think once we hit a couple of shots we all gain confidence from that," Harrower said.

"I think that's the good thing about our group, once somebody does something to fire the team up the whole team follows and I think that's why we're playing so well at the moment. It was a struggle up there, I think Sydney is a great team but it was good for us to get the win to keep our confidence rolling."

The 163cm world champion leads the league in assists, dishing 5.8 per game and is the third highest scorer in the league, averaging 19.2 points per game. She is also among the top ten players for steals, assists, foul shot percentage and three-point percentage.

Harrower is the first player to be awarded the weekly distinction three times this season; she was also named Nivea Player of the Week in Rounds 3 and 8.

While the team is glad to have made the finals for the first time Harrower said they were not getting ahead of themselves.

"We're looking forward to this Friday first, we've got Townsville at home and then we'll start talking about finals. We did talk about making the finals after the Dandenong game and we're all happy. We've put a lot of hard work in together to be able to get to the finals and get fifth spot, we've had to handle a lot of injuries and adversity so we're glad to get there."

Bendigo face a test of their finals credentials when they host the second-placed Fire on Friday before facing the Adelaide Lightning (fourth) in the Elimination Final to be played on Wednesday 25th February.

Another contender for the title this week was Adelaide Lightning forward Tracy Gahan.

Gahan has been a shining light for Adelaide in their recent form slump and led the team to their most convincing victory since December, 77-64 over the third-placed Bulleen Boomers.

The American import top-scored with 24 points on 5-of-7 shooting from 3-point range, and added 12 rebounds for the double-double.

Australia Basketball