Penrith's campaign in the 2015 Waratah Championship League competition hit a road bump on Saturday night at the Penrith Valley Regional Sports Centre, dropping both games to the Sydney City Comets in round 12 action.
Penrith were hot favourites in the women's game, in spite of the shock resignation of head coach Chris Jones. The Panthers put themselves in good scoring positions throughout the game but with their 'bigs' hitting just five of 21 shots in the paint (four of those from rookie Ashling O'Doherty), they failed to apply any pressure on the visitors. O'Doherty played her biggest role of the season under the new coaching team of Curtis Sardi and Omar Tupaea, playing a season-high 19 minutes and rewarding her coaches faith by converting 80 per cent from the field and pulling down four boards.
Sydney only hit the lead just before half time but would dominate from that point, culminating in an 80-64 win. Tahlia Tupaea led the Panthers with 23 points, 8 boards and 5 assists, ahead of Chantyl Szostak 15 points. Alicia Poto was kept quiet on the scoreboard but finished with a game-high 10 boards and 8 assists.
The Penrith men were out of sorts in the first half of their game, allowing the Comets to slip away to a 25-16 first quarter lead. Penrith recovered to trail 47-39 at half time but could not make any inroads in the Comets' margin in the second half, eventually falling 83-65. Ben Kearins led the Panthers with 17 points, ahead of Svetomir Gavrilovic 16, Jarrod Sorenson (Springwood) 13 boards and Louis Brandt (Springwood) 10 points. Both Penrith teams are away to the Norths Bears at Crows Nest on Saturday night, then return home on Sunday to host the Hornsby Spiders (women at 12.30pm, men at 2.30pm).
