It would be an understatement to describe round 7 of the 2022 NBL1 South season as a successful one for the OneFortyOne Mount Gambier Pioneers women.

The Mount Gambier side travelled east to take on the Frankston Blues and Nunawading Spectres and came away with both wins to score top spot on the NBL1 South ladder.

The Blues were the first opponents on Saturday night and they got off on the right foot with the first score from Tessa Lavey, but a counter basket was made by Sherrie Calleia.

Although Frankston’s Chelsea D’Angelo was on fire with Lavey also pushing for scoring opportunities, the play remained tight.

The Pioneers’ engine room in Cassandra Brown, Hannah Young, Shakera Reilly and Haliegh Reinoehl showed their power to sink baskets and take a slender four-point lead at the first break.

In the second quarter the Mount Gambier side took hold and started to score freely, opening up a nine-point lead in a close first half of NBL1 action.

Mount Gambier started well again in the third term, with Reinoehl making a two-point jump shot early before Lavey countered with a three pointer.

Kate Gaze, Ella Batish and Lavey tried to close in on the OneFortyOne Pioneers’ lead with some fast movement, but it was to no avail.

Reilly and Brown had already asserted their dominance on the game with some big three-point baskets and at the last break Mount Gambier held a comfortable 14-point lead.

Gaze and D’Angelo did their best to keep Frankston in the game with some two pointers, but Pioneers co-captain Jasmin Howe was in fine form with her jump shot to keep extending the Pioneers’ lead.

D’Angelo, Gaze and Lavey all made each basket count for the Blues in the last, but Calleia, Young and Reinoehl knuckled down to take the OneFortyOne Pioneers to an important 16-point win.

In game two of the double header on the road the nails on the Mount Gambier bench would have been a bit shorter with a close encounter against the Nunawading Spectres.

The scene was set early for the visitors, with Brown making a three-point pull up shot some 15 seconds into the game to get proceedings under way.

But then Rachel Antoniadou put in a two for the Spectres to get the home side rolling and Cassidy Mihalko made a two-pointer to push out an early lead.

Play was neck-and-neck by both sides as Mount Gambier’s Reinoehl made a two-point layup to re-take the lead before being countered by a Rachel Brewster two pointer.

The lead kept swapping hands until the dying minutes when Sophie Miles and Shakera Reilly landed some baskets.

However, just when the Pioneers thought they held the advantage, a Megan Mullings free-throw gave the home side a three-point lead in the first break.

Howe made the basket count early in the second with a two-point layup to narrow the margin and Reinoehl assisted with another two to regain the lead.

Spectres’ Emma Pearce made a two in the eighth minute of play to gain the lead along with Mihalko making a three 30 seconds later to extend the margin.

Mount Gambier needed to respond and Calleia made a two with support from Brown to regain momentum on the scoreboard.

The Pioneers kept chipping away through Howe and Reilly to reel in the Blues and eventually a driving layup by Brown pushed the visitors into the lead by the main break.

However, Mount Gambier only held a one-point advantage and scoring slowed in the third term as the pressure mounted.

Despite baskets being harder to come by, the Pioneers opened a game-high eight-point lead thanks to Calleia, Howe and Reinoehl.

However, the Spectres fought back brilliantly to ensure all results were in the air with only three points the difference at the final break.

Nunawading stormed into the lead with a six-point swing at the start of the final term thanks to a double play by Emma Pearce.

But the Pioneers responded immediately through a Reinoehl step-back jump shot, but her efforts were not enough to regain the lead before the five minute warning.

Eventually Mount Gambier rose above the pressure with Reinoehl, Calleia and Reilly scoring big baskets to build a lead big enough to deny any hope of a late swing the Spectres way.

The Pioneers dug deep to win by six points as the final buzzer sounded and will take a well-earned break over the long weekend before shifting focus to the home game on Saturday, June 18 against Kilsyth Cobras at the Icehouse.