By JARROD POTTER
AN ENDEAVOUR Hills basketball duo will suit up for the biggest WNBL match of the season on Sunday.
Rosie Fadljevic, 20, and Steph Cumming, 23, both from Endeavour Hills, made the switch to the Townsville Fire this season after playing their junior and WNBL basketball with the Dandenong Rangers.
Fadljevic and Cumming were part of the Dandenong side last season that lost at the same last hurdle against Townsville – beaten 64-78 in the 2012/13 WNBL preliminary final – but have not suffered the same premature end to the season this year with their switch up north.
The move has paid off for the pair as they will contest the WNBL grand final on Sunday against Bendigo.
Cumming proved instrumental in the Fire’s 74-71 preliminary final victory over the Rangers – scoring 15 points and made the critical defensive play on Dandenong’s Alice Kunek in the dying seconds of the match to force a turnover.
“It was good – great to be on the winning team this time,” Cumming said.
“It was one of those games where every little thing counted and we made a lot of emphasis on doing all the little things well at training and taking it one play at a time so that’s what our win came down to.”
Fadljevic had two points and four rebounds in the victory and has been starting for the Fire consistently this season – including a best return of eight points and four rebounds against Adelaide in round 17.
“That was a bloody awesome win,” Fadljevic said. “We’ve been training really hard for it this week and just to be on the winning side and it’s a repeat of last year is great.
“Next week we’re going to do one better and win the thing.”
Watching the final minutes proved agony for Fadljevic and she jokingly admitted the stress of these close finishes was paying a toll on her.
“I was on the bench with Ally Wilson and we were on the news last week from last week’s game and hugging each other cause we just couldn’t deal with it.
“The amount of heart attacks these girls have given me is just ridiculous – so I just couldn’t watch in the end and I left it to the girls cause I couldn’t deal with it in the end.”
Both players were keenly looking ahead to the magic moment they walk out on Bendigo Basketball Stadium’s main court for the WNBL grand final – which will be telecast on ABC1 from 3pm on Sunday.
Cumming’s successful season also resulted in an invite to the Australian Institute of Sport as part of the Australian Opals training camp in January.
