Madgen earns WNBL's player of the week award

Updated November 7 2012 - 3:56am, first published October 26 2010 - 10:25am
HOT HAND: Bendigo Spirit guard Tess Madgen dominated in the victory against the AIS.
HOT HAND: Bendigo Spirit guard Tess Madgen dominated in the victory against the AIS.

IN just her third game for Bendigo Bank Spirit, Tess Madgen has earned the Women’s National Basketball League player of the week award.Recruited to Spirit from the Australian Institute of Sport, Madgen starred in round three.Playing against her former club on Sunday, Magden dominated in attack.Perhaps a little more at home on the AIS Training Hall court than her teammates, Madgen finished with 28 points at 75 per cent and also achieved four steals.Only one other player, Gretel Tippet, reached double figures for the AIS.Magden said she was fortunate to be on the end of some solid team play by Spirit.“We were like 0-15 from the three- point line and they were defending our on-ball (screens) really well, so we had to go to a couple of different plays which, lucky for me, I was on the receiving end of the passes.”The win was an important step for the side as the Bernie Harrower-coached Bendigo was on the rebound from home-court defeats to the powerful Canberra Capitals and Dandenong Rangers.Madgen said a four-quarter effort was crucial against the AIS.“It was shown in the first half of both the Canberra and the Dandenong game that our style is effective, but we just weren’t able to sustain it in both games. We just had too many lapses.“It was a pretty tough for us to get over the line on the weekend because the AIS play really up tempo as well, up and back, so we were trying to slow them down a bit.” The progress of Madgen is not only a sign of the strength of the AIS program, but a lesson for those representing the AIS side about what can be achieved soon after completing the program and moving forward. The Spirit take on Bulleen in this Saturday night’s showdown on the Boomers court.“They’re just coming back from China, so they’re going to be a bit tired, hopefully,” said Madgen.“But having said that, they’re going to be better, I feel, for having a couple of extra games under their belt, so I think it’s the same plan of attack – try to keep it out of the key with their dominant bigs and then run the floor in transition,” she said of the clash with the Boomers.

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