'We were on Venus': US imports seal last-gasp win for out-of-sorts Falcons

The Advertiser

15-06-2025

Jiselle Havas did it against Norths two weeks earlier.
And, the United States import did it again in Canberra on Saturday night.
The American guard joined the Falcons in May after a strong campaign in the British Super League and has quickly proven to be a matchwinner under pressure.
The 24-year-old held her nerve to produce a two-point jump shot with two seconds left on the clock at the Australian Institute of Sport on Saturday night to seal what coach Kristy Bultitude described as "a huge" 73-71 win.
The Falcons were forced to stave off a fierce fightback from the fourth-placed Centre of Excellence (CoE) after holding a 61-53 lead heading into the final quarter.
Their opponents chipped away at Newcastle's lead and closed the gap before hitting the front, 69-67, with four minutes remaining.
Back-to-back NBL1 East Most Valuable Player Nicole Munger did what she does best, pulling off a couple of huge late plays.
Munger sunk a two-point jump shot to level the score at 69-69 with two minutes remaining then produced a defensive rebound before scoring another two-pointer with less than a minute on the clock to again tie things up, this time at 71-71.
Enter Havas, after being injected into the game with 26 seconds to play.
CoE's Emilija Dakic missed shots either side of Havas' effort.
"[Assistant coach] Bernadette [Schmidt] said to me, 'Who do you want on?', because Meg [Jefferson] fouled out, and I said, 'Put Jiselle on', another shooter," Bultitude said.
"Jiselle has done it twice for us now, hit the game-winning shot. She did it against Norths as well."
Munger finished the game with a game-high 19 points. Jefferson chimed in with 14 points.
Bultitude felt it was a lucky escape on an off night for the Falcons.
"When you don't play your best and you can walk away with a win, you're pretty satisfied," Bultitude said.
"We were on Venus ... our mental aptitude was just missing completely. I don't know what went wrong, whether it was just having two weeks off and not having a game. I was drawing plays that I haven't had to draw from round three ... it was just one of those nights.
"We were very lucky we got over the line and then even luckier that Norths lost last night to Albury. It was a huge result. It means now we've sort of got that one game up on Norths.
"But, I think it's just the culture of the group. They stick together. They know that things aren't going well for them and their heads may be down but they just get after it for each other."
The win has defending champions Newcastle top of the points table as they eye a weekend double-header on the road against second-placed Norths and 12th-placed Penrith.
The seventh-placed Falcons men went down fighting in an 86-80 to leaders CoE on Saturday night.
Newcastle trailed 69-55 at three-quarter time but Ryan Beisty had them within three points of their opponents, at 83-80, when he drained a three-point jump shot with less than two minutes remaining.
Elijah Stephens finished with 20 points for the Falcons, Matur Maluach scored 17 points and Myles Cherry produced 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Jiselle Havas did it against Norths two weeks earlier.
And, the United States import did it again in Canberra on Saturday night.
The American guard joined the Falcons in May after a strong campaign in the British Super League and has quickly proven to be a matchwinner under pressure.
The 24-year-old held her nerve to produce a two-point jump shot with two seconds left on the clock at the Australian Institute of Sport on Saturday night to seal what coach Kristy Bultitude described as "a huge" 73-71 win.
The Falcons were forced to stave off a fierce fightback from the fourth-placed Centre of Excellence (CoE) after holding a 61-53 lead heading into the final quarter.
Their opponents chipped away at Newcastle's lead and closed the gap before hitting the front, 69-67, with four minutes remaining.
Back-to-back NBL1 East Most Valuable Player Nicole Munger did what she does best, pulling off a couple of huge late plays.
Munger sunk a two-point jump shot to level the score at 69-69 with two minutes remaining then produced a defensive rebound before scoring another two-pointer with less than a minute on the clock to again tie things up, this time at 71-71.
Enter Havas, after being injected into the game with 26 seconds to play.
CoE's Emilija Dakic missed shots either side of Havas' effort.
"[Assistant coach] Bernadette [Schmidt] said to me, 'Who do you want on?', because Meg [Jefferson] fouled out, and I said, 'Put Jiselle on', another shooter," Bultitude said.
"Jiselle has done it twice for us now, hit the game-winning shot. She did it against Norths as well."
Munger finished the game with a game-high 19 points. Jefferson chimed in with 14 points.
Bultitude felt it was a lucky escape on an off night for the Falcons.
"When you don't play your best and you can walk away with a win, you're pretty satisfied," Bultitude said.
"We were on Venus ... our mental aptitude was just missing completely. I don't know what went wrong, whether it was just having two weeks off and not having a game. I was drawing plays that I haven't had to draw from round three ... it was just one of those nights.
"We were very lucky we got over the line and then even luckier that Norths lost last night to Albury. It was a huge result. It means now we've sort of got that one game up on Norths.
"But, I think it's just the culture of the group. They stick together. They know that things aren't going well for them and their heads may be down but they just get after it for each other."
The win has defending champions Newcastle top of the points table as they eye a weekend double-header on the road against second-placed Norths and 12th-placed Penrith.
The seventh-placed Falcons men went down fighting in an 86-80 to leaders CoE on Saturday night.
Newcastle trailed 69-55 at three-quarter time but Ryan Beisty had them within three points of their opponents, at 83-80, when he drained a three-point jump shot with less than two minutes remaining.
Elijah Stephens finished with 20 points for the Falcons, Matur Maluach scored 17 points and Myles Cherry produced 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Jiselle Havas did it against Norths two weeks earlier.
And, the United States import did it again in Canberra on Saturday night.
The American guard joined the Falcons in May after a strong campaign in the British Super League and has quickly proven to be a matchwinner under pressure.
The 24-year-old held her nerve to produce a two-point jump shot with two seconds left on the clock at the Australian Institute of Sport on Saturday night to seal what coach Kristy Bultitude described as "a huge" 73-71 win.
The Falcons were forced to stave off a fierce fightback from the fourth-placed Centre of Excellence (CoE) after holding a 61-53 lead heading into the final quarter.
Their opponents chipped away at Newcastle's lead and closed the gap before hitting the front, 69-67, with four minutes remaining.
Back-to-back NBL1 East Most Valuable Player Nicole Munger did what she does best, pulling off a couple of huge late plays.
Munger sunk a two-point jump shot to level the score at 69-69 with two minutes remaining then produced a defensive rebound before scoring another two-pointer with less than a minute on the clock to again tie things up, this time at 71-71.
Enter Havas, after being injected into the game with 26 seconds to play.
CoE's Emilija Dakic missed shots either side of Havas' effort.
"[Assistant coach] Bernadette [Schmidt] said to me, 'Who do you want on?', because Meg [Jefferson] fouled out, and I said, 'Put Jiselle on', another shooter," Bultitude said.
"Jiselle has done it twice for us now, hit the game-winning shot. She did it against Norths as well."
Munger finished the game with a game-high 19 points. Jefferson chimed in with 14 points.
Bultitude felt it was a lucky escape on an off night for the Falcons.
"When you don't play your best and you can walk away with a win, you're pretty satisfied," Bultitude said.
"We were on Venus ... our mental aptitude was just missing completely. I don't know what went wrong, whether it was just having two weeks off and not having a game. I was drawing plays that I haven't had to draw from round three ... it was just one of those nights.
"We were very lucky we got over the line and then even luckier that Norths lost last night to Albury. It was a huge result. It means now we've sort of got that one game up on Norths.
"But, I think it's just the culture of the group. They stick together. They know that things aren't going well for them and their heads may be down but they just get after it for each other."
The win has defending champions Newcastle top of the points table as they eye a weekend double-header on the road against second-placed Norths and 12th-placed Penrith.
The seventh-placed Falcons men went down fighting in an 86-80 to leaders CoE on Saturday night.
Newcastle trailed 69-55 at three-quarter time but Ryan Beisty had them within three points of their opponents, at 83-80, when he drained a three-point jump shot with less than two minutes remaining.
Elijah Stephens finished with 20 points for the Falcons, Matur Maluach scored 17 points and Myles Cherry produced 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Jiselle Havas did it against Norths two weeks earlier.
And, the United States import did it again in Canberra on Saturday night.
The American guard joined the Falcons in May after a strong campaign in the British Super League and has quickly proven to be a matchwinner under pressure.
The 24-year-old held her nerve to produce a two-point jump shot with two seconds left on the clock at the Australian Institute of Sport on Saturday night to seal what coach Kristy Bultitude described as "a huge" 73-71 win.
The Falcons were forced to stave off a fierce fightback from the fourth-placed Centre of Excellence (CoE) after holding a 61-53 lead heading into the final quarter.
Their opponents chipped away at Newcastle's lead and closed the gap before hitting the front, 69-67, with four minutes remaining.
Back-to-back NBL1 East Most Valuable Player Nicole Munger did what she does best, pulling off a couple of huge late plays.
Munger sunk a two-point jump shot to level the score at 69-69 with two minutes remaining then produced a defensive rebound before scoring another two-pointer with less than a minute on the clock to again tie things up, this time at 71-71.
Enter Havas, after being injected into the game with 26 seconds to play.
CoE's Emilija Dakic missed shots either side of Havas' effort.
"[Assistant coach] Bernadette [Schmidt] said to me, 'Who do you want on?', because Meg [Jefferson] fouled out, and I said, 'Put Jiselle on', another shooter," Bultitude said.
"Jiselle has done it twice for us now, hit the game-winning shot. She did it against Norths as well."
Munger finished the game with a game-high 19 points. Jefferson chimed in with 14 points.
Bultitude felt it was a lucky escape on an off night for the Falcons.
"When you don't play your best and you can walk away with a win, you're pretty satisfied," Bultitude said.
"We were on Venus ... our mental aptitude was just missing completely. I don't know what went wrong, whether it was just having two weeks off and not having a game. I was drawing plays that I haven't had to draw from round three ... it was just one of those nights.
"We were very lucky we got over the line and then even luckier that Norths lost last night to Albury. It was a huge result. It means now we've sort of got that one game up on Norths.
"But, I think it's just the culture of the group. They stick together. They know that things aren't going well for them and their heads may be down but they just get after it for each other."
The win has defending champions Newcastle top of the points table as they eye a weekend double-header on the road against second-placed Norths and 12th-placed Penrith.
The seventh-placed Falcons men went down fighting in an 86-80 to leaders CoE on Saturday night.
Newcastle trailed 69-55 at three-quarter time but Ryan Beisty had them within three points of their opponents, at 83-80, when he drained a three-point jump shot with less than two minutes remaining.
Elijah Stephens finished with 20 points for the Falcons, Matur Maluach scored 17 points and Myles Cherry produced 14 points and 11 rebounds.