The Ringwood Lady Hawks impressive debut NBL1 season ended suddenly on Sunday afternoon to a red hot Nunawading Spectres by 24 points at The Rings.

After losing on Saturday night at Geelong, the Lady Hawks returned home and hosted the Spectres who have been in recent sparkling form. Now in a knock out semi-final and fighting for survival, Ringwood quickly found out that Finals can be a different beast. The Spectres nailed their first 6 shots whilst the Hawks continued to turn the ball over.

The Hawks situation went from bad to worse late in the first quarter when Megan Mullings picked up her second early foul and was sent to the bench. With Toni Farnworth slowed with an illness, the Hawks could not match the visitors who built a 20 point lead.

By half time the Hawks had managed to work their way into the contest but was still unable to put a dint in the Spectres lead which remained at 21 at the long break.

“They just shot the ball remarkably well.” Hawks Coach Tim Mottin said.

“It felt like every shot they took they made.”

It wasn’t far off it as the Spectres hot shooting continued in the third quarter thanks to Maddie Garrick and Kathleen Scheer. Nunawading and one stage were shooting at a remarkable 83% from the field, an unheard of shooting percentage.

Another run by Nunawading quickly put to rest any plans the Hawks had of pinching an unlikely win as the lead ballooned to 30. The Lady Hawks on the other hand could not hit water if the fell out of a boat.

Mullings kept the score ticking over but Nunawading cruised to a 24 point win and a preliminary final against Kilsyth next week.

“It was a tough end but a great season by the girls.” Mottin said

“Really proud of our third place finish in the regular season but we just ran in to two teams that are health and playing their best.”

The Lady Hawks will now look to 2020 and hopefully build on what they achieved this season.

“We need to improve in a few areas but we know we are more than capable of competing against the best.” Mottin said.