Mandurah Magic drop quarter final opening game

THE Mandurah Magic women have coughed up the advantage in game 1 of their quarter finals series against Rockingham.

Despite earning a double home court chance in their three game series against the Flames, Mandurah were unable to end game 1 with the win, going down 76-65.

After finishing the regular season with a nine-game winning streak the Magic continued that form from tip off and was the stronger of the two teams for most of the night, but their loss came in large part to Rockingham’s Darcee Garbin, who sunk a massive 32 points to lift her team to an important away win.

Taylor Brown top scored for Mandurah with 19 points while Casey Mihovilovich (15), Bree Klasztorny (14) and Carly Boag (12) also reached double digits.

Magic coach Craig Watts said some adjustments needed to be made before the second game.

“Obviously we’re disappointed and you want to win the first final but at the end of the day it is best of three and that’s what I’ve said to the girls,” he said.

“It looks like we’re here for three games now because we feel as though we were in the game for the majority of it but still hadn’t played our best basketball compared to the last four or five weeks.

“There’s definitely positives there for us and we were in the game for a long chunk of it and it can be five minutes of lapse which costs you in a final.

“We will regroup this week and come back to have another crack.”

The Magic will now have to beat Rockingham away in game 2 this weekend to force a deciding game and the chance to progress to the semi-finals.

Game 2 is at the Mike Barnett Sports Complex in Rockingham from 6pm, August 10.