Cavs come crashing back

Brad Szalek tries to find a way past the mighty wingspan of Geelong's Seb Loader.

By JARROD POTTER

BIG V FINALS – DIVISION 1 MEN AND YOUTH LEAGUE 2 MEN
DUAL hopes of bringing the Big V championships back to Casey were snuffed out on Saturday night in back-to-back Cavaliers’ finals defeats.
The Casey basketball community entered the night confident of its chances after an impressive finish to the Division 1 Men’s season – taking out the minor flag with a 17-5 record – while the Youth League 2 Men were riding high after knocking off their greatest competition Warrandyte the week before in the first final.
But Saturday will go down as the day Casey senior men fell to Geelong 58-71 while the Youth Men succumbed to a 69-82 loss to an equally fast-finishing Mornington.
A buoyant start had Casey lead 15-2 at one point in the first term, but from then on the Supercats started to drag the Cavaliers back in.
Geelong’s march began in earnest in the second term, chipping away at the initial deficit before pushing ahead to send Casey to the rooms trailing 27-33.
Shooting proved the thorn in Casey’s side with Stewart Baird’s charges only mustering 28.4 per cent from the field while its three-point game – that had been an emphatic hallmark of the season so far – was also virtually absent.
Geelong out-rebounded the vertically impressive Cavaliers but had similar issues on shooting to leave the match in the balance until the dying minutes.
Foul trouble dogged both sides as Brent Hobba (14 points, seven rebounds), Ben Louis (12 points) and Lester Strong (12 points, 12 rebounds) all circled ejection with four fouls.
Strong’s match on Geelong centre Seb Loader was the standout Casey achievement on the night.
Not many players in the league can match the versatile Supercat under the ring, or managed to fire back and stop his defensive prowess like big number 44 did in the elimination final.
Casey fought back one last time with five minutes remaining – dropping the margin to four as Hobba and Louis called upon every ounce of their immense finals experience.
But Louis would soon be forced from the game on a line-ball offensive charge and from there Geelong held court and built back up the winning margin.
Paul Hutchison (28 points) and Dane Bow (nine points) struck the final nails into the Casey coffin beyond the arc, leaving the Cavaliers to wonder yet again what could’ve been of another strong season.
“I kind of think it probably started a few weeks ago to be honest,” Baird said.
“Truthfully looking back – I had this in mind at the time but didn’t want to play on it – I don’t think we’ve been playing well for a month.
“Shooting percentage over the last month has been in the doldrums and that was reflected again.
“They just knocked down big shots at critical times and we weren’t able to do.”
The efforts of Strong were even more impressive as Baird revealed after the match his star centre may need back surgery to correct his spinal discs.
“Even more to that story – he’s got two really badly bulging discs in his back and may require surgery,” Baird said.
“Lester has been playing under really difficult circumstances and to go up against Seb and manage it in that manner, and couldn’t ask more of him.”
It brings to an end Casey’s first Division 1 campaign and with the club’s intent to move up to State Championship quickly, it may be the only season spent in Big V’s middle ranked competition.
In the opening final, the Cavaliers Youth Men could not halt the march of the Breakers down the stretch as a 15-29 final term saw a comfortable lead evaporate quickly.
As with the senior side, a 22-9 lead was opened early, but the visiting Breakers crashed the party to storm home.
Gallant efforts from Sean Mckinnon (14 points, eight rebounds), Ryan Sinclair (14 points) and Sam Pike (nine points, nine rebounds) were not enough to hold back the tides as Mornington snuck through to face Warrandyte in the Youth League 2 Men’s grand final.