CENTRE of Excellence graduate Sienna Harvey was immense for the Melbourne Tigers as they claimed a 33-point win over the Ballarat Miners in Round 6 of the NBL1 South Women’s competition over the weekend.

The Tigers came into the clash at Selkirk Stadium as favourites on Saturday evening, having enjoyed a positive start to their 2025 campaign with four wins from seven outings. On the other hand, the Miners had won just three of their first eight games and were in danger of falling behind the eight-ball in the standings, although home court advantage would be a big boost.

It was a dominant display from the visitors, winning all four quarters and holding the Miners to just a combined 13 points in the second and third quarters, which was too little to keep up with the Tigers. Although Ballarat lifted in the fourth quarter, there was simply not enough time as Melbourne claimed a big win on the road.

Harvey was the star of the show for the Tigers, putting forth a tremendous performance that shows she is well and truly comfortable at NBL1 level, and looms as a central figure for Melbourne moving forward.

Ballarat Miners (49) def. by Melbourne Tigers (82)

Sienna Harvey – 21 points, six rebounds, five assists,

It was another impressive showing from Harvey, who has been one of Melbourne’s best performers throughout the first six rounds of the season, and is doing it all at just 19 years of age, living up to her preseason hype as a product of the Centre of Excellence.

She had an excellent start to the match, getting on the board with a tough and-one layup inside the paint, converting truly at the free throw line to cap off the highlight play in transition. She found teammate Abbey Sutherland inside the paint with a nice dish to help the Tigers get out to an ideal start.

After a short stint on the bench, she returned to the game for the final few minutes of the first quarter, and continued to push the ball inside and attack the paint, which resulted in several trips to the free throw line and another tough layup in the paint. Harvey capped off a productive term with a nice dish out to Genna Ogier on the perimeter, who nailed the triple to give the Tigers an eight-point buffer at quarter time.

After spending most of the second quarter on the bench, Harvey was injected back into the game coming out of half-time, again getting involved almost immediately with another trip to the free throw line. She was finding plenty of success in her aggressive mindset, and if her layups did not fall, it was typically because the opposition was forced to foul.

She showed her impressive touch with a crafty euro step inside, avoiding the defence in front of her to finish at the cup. It was a perfect example of just how hard Harvey can be to stop when it comes to scoring in the paint, seemingly unfazed by the opposition players in front of her.

In the end, Harvey certainly made the most of her 20 minutes of court time, posting 21 points on 7/14 FG and 7/10 FT to go with her six rebounds and five assists in a tremendous all-around display that was reflective of the excellent campaign she is putting together.