It's another piece of history for the Tasmania Jewels this Thursday night with a first ever WNBL away game against the Southside Melbourne Flyers and reinforcements have arrived quickly with Mikaela Ruef stepping in for Keely Froling.
The Jewels made the best possible start to their life in the WNBL last Thursday night beating the Geelong Venom 103-90 in front of a sold out crowd at MyState Bank Arena.
There was plenty to like in the performance and now they will look to take that momentum on the road with them to take on the Flyers at Melbourne's State Basketball Centre this Thursday night with the game tipping off at 7pm.
Related articles:
Basham already refocused after emotional start
Garbin proud of standard Jewels are setting
Jewels debut everything coach dreamed of
Rd 1 Report | Jewels celebrate historic opening night
While the performance last Thursday night from the Jewels was outstanding for the first up 13-point win, they were already without WNBA import Madina Okot, with Taylor Mole unavailable with a back injury and then Keely Froling injuring a calf during the game.
With that trio also unavailable now for the game against the Flyers in Melbourne on Thursday night, the Jewels had to move quickly to shore up the front court and coach Claudia Brassard looked no further to putting in the call to Mikaela Ruef.
Having just celebrated her 36th birthday to coincided with a return to the WNBL for the first time since playing with the Sydney Flames back in the 2024/25 season, she is as close to a like-for-like replacement for Froling as you'll find.
Ruef has always been a rebounding monster in the WNBL, but at NBL1 level that has been even more pronounced including averaging 18.5 points and 21.3 rebounds with the North Gold Coast Seahawks in 2024, 23.1 points and 22.6 rebounds with the Logan Thunder in 2023, and 14.6 points and 20.1 rebounds also at Logan in 2022.
Ruef is also a WNBL championship winner already and even though she's still dealing with having a newborn baby as well, Brassard couldn’t be happier to have her as an immediate replacement for Froling who is expected to miss four to six weeks.
"We'll miss her because she's such a tough competitor for us and she gives us a lot of versatility, and she played some minutes for us at the three and the four in the first game so we'll miss her rebounding, toughness on defence and you can't just replace that easily," Brassard said.
"I've coached lots against Mikaela and she's certainly been in Queensland for a long time and I'm well aware of her, and she played for Townsville so I saw lots of her though.
"She's also a fellow engineer and we just rang her because we wanted someone that could be here in 24 or 48 hours so it was a tight list we went through.
"We were really looking for rebounding as a primary focus and she's a smart WNBL player who knows the league and the players. So it was kind of an easy choice to bring her in."
Despite missing three rostered players for Thursday night's game, there was plenty to like from the first up performance from the Jewels.
That included captain Darcee Garbin delivering 20 points, eight rebounds and three assists, import Gianna Kneepkens 20 points, eight boards and three assists, Brooke Basham 19 points, eight rebounds, four steals and three assists, Steph Reid 17 points and eight assists, and Ella Tofaeono 11 points and six rebounds.
They now look to take their momentum with them onto the road to take on a Flyers team who lost their first up game to start the season by four points to the Sydney Flames.
But there was a lot to be excited about from their perspective too under the coaching of Australian basketball legend Sam Mackinnon with Tess Heal, Lara Edmanson, Madi Ryan, Wang Siyu and Lucy Cochrane among those to impress.
As a result, Brassard knows that they are going to be a significant test for the Jewels.
"I think they surprised everyone with how hard they played against Sydney so we're certainly not taking them lightly," Brassard said.
"They're well coached and Sam might not have been in the league, but he's a very experienced basketball coach and player himself so we certainly want to make sure we're matching their intensity and energy when we hit the floor.
"If we can come out with that same sort of mindset that we did last week I think we'll be in a good space."
WNBL SEASON 2026/27 | ROUND 2
TASMANIA JEWELS v Southside Melbourne Flyers
State Basketball Centre (Melbourne), Thursday October 22, 7:00pm
Watch live on 9now and Disney via ESPN
_CMYK_POS.avif)
-p-500.png)