By JARROD POTTER
A MINOR championship and bragging rights as the top team in Big V Division 2 isn’t enough for the Casey Cavaliers.
The side is after championship glory and will need to get past Keilor in the best-of-three semi-final series which starts on Saturday night at Keilor’s home stadium.
Casey’s road to the finals ended with a three-point loss to Keysborough before knocking off Pakenham 83-67 to ice the minor flag and take some momentum into the semi-finals.
“We were obviously disappointed not to get the win on Saturday night but to back it up Sunday and get a good win over the local rival was pleasing and exactly how we wanted to finish up,” Casey coach Stewart Baird said.
“We knew we needed to win one of the matches to secure top spot so we were very pleased we did that on Sunday.”
Matt Pebole (27 points, nine assists) and Dean Johnson (19 points, 11 rebounds) led the Cavaliers’ charge on Saturday night along with Matt Witherden (18 points, eight rebounds).
The Cavaliers could not block Keysborough guard Eric Miraflores – who popped up for a trio of crucial three-pointers in the fourth term to shift the advantage the Cougars’ way.
In the end the Cavaliers took too many three-point attempts and after a blast from the coach on Sunday afternoon against Pakenham, it started to sink in for the Cavaliers that they can’t rely on the perimeter game as much.
“I think the key difference – and it really took a half of basketball to get it through their heads – the amount of three-point attempts we were taking,” Baird said. “We took way too many on Saturday night and we did the same on Sunday and took me a time-out and a bit of a dummy spit to get it through to them, but from them onwards we only took two for the rest of the game.”
Casey ran away with the match against the Warriors to clinch top spot and knock Pakenham out of the finals race with Pebole (19 points, seven rebounds) and Witherden (16 points) atop the scoresheet.
Tip-off on Saturday night is 8.15pm at Keilor Basketball Stadium – and Baird encourages all Cavaliers fans to make the trek to the west to support the team.
“That will obviously be a battle – they’re tough at the best of times – but in their own place in finals they tend to get decent crowds that are pretty rowdy and aren’t afraid to stir the pot a bit so we’ll have to be up and ready to go when we hit the floor on Saturday night.”
Casey’s youth men will face Keysborough in their semi-final on Sunday afternoon from 11am at Springers Leisure Centre.
