Sidney Parsons and Erica Carlson have been the best at their craft leading the QBL from their positions in a Pirates team that showed pre-season promise. A team that featured 4 girls over 192cm (6'3") in preseason, import Erica Carlson, talented U16 Queensland rep Ashlee Hannan, new comer, Abi Marsh and U20 Queensland rep who can dunk, Zitina Aokuso. Combined with Renee Teys, Charlie Keimann, Celeste Williams, Jameson McMullen, Shandon Osborne, Telesia Manumaleuga and the duo of new players, the hard working Jerica Lacey and sharp shooter Emma Glen it was shaping up to be an exciting year. A season to watch these players develop and come together but before the season got started, it all changed and the team had to deal with set back after set back. Celeste went down with a bad ankle sprain that would effectively keep her out for the season, Zitina Aukuso was offered a scholarship at the Centre of Excellence by Opal's coach Brendan Joyce, Ashlee Hannan was under pressure to manage state team commitments and QBL, Charlie Keimann injured her back which kept her out for the season, the same happened to Jameson McMullen. All of a sudden for the team to be successful both Sidney Parson's and Erica Carlson had to shoulder a greater workload.
Both put their shoulder to the wheel and pushed their team along. Sidney Parsons realized she needed to be more of a scoring point guard after the first game loss against Toowoomba. Sid had a 50 point outburst in the next game to bring the Pirates home in their first win against Powerhouse Gladstone. It was a Sidney we had not seen before, always a leader but more of a distributor of the ball, Sid had become a scoring dynamo which forced teams to pay more attention to her. Despite the extra attention Sidney averaged 26.8 points per game to lead the QBL in scoring. She led the QBL in free throws made (134) and free throws attempted (167) and shot them at 80%, Sid was also equal 6th in the QBL in steals per game.
Erica Carlson had a similar effort from the post position and dominated play around the basket. She lead the league in blocked shots (2.7bpg) for the second year in a row and was the second leading rebounder at 15.6 rpg. Erica was the third in field goal percentage for players that had over 50 shots. Erica had three 20 plus rebound games including a season high of 24 in a win against the Sunshine Coast Phoenix Clippers.
Thanks for a great season girls!
