By JARROD POTTER
GRAND final glory awaits Casey Cavaliers after a nine-point victory over Keilor sealed their passage to the last round of the year.
The grand final series most predicted throughout the season has become reality in Big V Division 2 men as Casey advanced past Keilor to face their perennial 2014 rivals – Shepparton.
Casey was banged up in the process as Bevan Camilleri suffered a twisted ankle before coming back on and getting a hit to the head requiring stiches.
With star import Matt Pebole (15 points, four rebounds) fouled out in the dying minutes of the fourth term and starting point guard Chris Murray still recovering from an ankle injury, it left the Cavaliers three regular starters down with six minutes left.
The onus to guide Casey into the grand final fell to the powerhouse talls.
Centre-rotating trio Matt Witherden (24 points, 12 rebounds, four assists), Ash Szalek (11 points, six rebounds) and captain Dean Johnson (eight points, five rebounds) took on the scoring duties and repelled the Thunder defensively to seal the 73-64 victory.
“Witho was huge – ended up playing the whole 40 minutes… pushing towards a triple-double and was just really smart when we needed someone to be experienced and keeping hold of things down the stretch,” Casey coach Stewart Baird said.
“He got us over the line with the rest of the group that were on the floor – Brad Szalek did a really good job in those final minutes, Ash Szalek was solid as well during that time and Dean Johnson was big – took up a lot of space and got himself into good positions and scored a couple of times when we needed him to.”
Casey’s toil shown last year in pre-season has paid off and a must-watch grand final series is now on the cards.
“We feel like it’s been a long process – we started work out back in late October – and I guess we’re coming up on 10 months and it’s been a lot of hard work to go into it, about 90 practice sessions and 190 hours.
“It’s worked out brilliantly – the two top teams have gone through and it’s going to be potentially a classic finals series.”
The key detail for Casey heading into the first grand final will be to shut down the Gators’ high-tempo offence and play out a defensively minded match.
“I think it’s going to be a defensive battle as far as I’m concerned,” Baird said.
“Shepparton will probably see it differently – they tend to play a style of game where they try to outscore you, but against them I think the strength is we can hold a couple of their key guys if we’re at our best defensively.”
Shepparton will have a Casey feel to its side with former Cavalier Dylan Wayman in the Gators line-up.
The first match of the Big V grand final best-of-three series is on Saturday night at Shepparton Sports Stadium from 7.30pm.
