A never-say-die attitude and some clutch plays at the death from a pair of star veterans has helped the Warrnambool Mermaids secure Big V grand final hosting rights.
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Down by seven points against Bellarine Storm at three-quarter-time, the Mermaids found another gear in the final term of the semi-final to triumph 63-59 in front of a passionate home crowd at the Arc.
The side will now host the decider in two weeks time as it aims for back-to-back championships.
Mermaids coach Lee Primmer was thrilled with the result and his side's perseverance.
"We never gave up," he said. "We had the belief that we could do it...
"Some people play a lot of basketball and football and that and they never get the opportunity to play in a grand final. Some of these young kids are 16 and 17 and they're going to play in their second one in two years at a state level."
Experienced campaigner Amy Wormald, who missed training on Thursday due to being unwell, was phenomenal for the Mermaids, scoring 20 points, 18 rebounds and four assists in a full 40 minutes of game-time.
Dakota Crichton was also influential, dropping 17 points to go with 11 rebounds.
"Dakota Crichton's had 17 points and she's held the gun to 14," Primmer said.
"That goes a long way to giving you an opportunity to win.
Champion veteran Louise Brown had seven points of her own and was influential late - alongside Wormald - with some vital buckets to help get the Mermaids across the line.
"Amy Wormald, she didn't train Thursday night, she was in bed crook, there was a slight little doubt whether or not she might have played. She's a tough nut, veteran, her and Brown down the stretch in a little pick-and-roll situation they were great," Primmer said.
"...I just mentioned to the girls then that we've got a couple of really experienced veterans and down the stretch you can't buy that experience.
"And we've got that with tremendous amount of young youth."
The Mermaids trailed by nine-points at half-time, with Primmer saying his side needed to lift its physicality to remain in the contest.
"(We were) great down the stretch," he said.
"We just said at half time that if we could match Bellarine's physicality - I think they were quite physical - we'd give ourselves a chance of getting back into the game and I think we did that."
Primmer said his side would focus on its shooting after an underwhelming performance in that area.
"We didn't shoot the ball very well tonight, so that's a positive for us too because we are a fairly decent perimeter shooting team and we haven't shot it well for a couple of weeks, so we need to keep working on that at practice," he said.
Matt Hughes
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
