By JARROD POTTER
BIG V – YOUTH LEAGUE TWO MEN QUALIFYING FINAL
OVERCOMING its toughest opponent this year in a final, the Cavaliers had to travel to face Warrandyte in enemy territory, but it didn’t faze the Cranbourne-based basketball side which claimed a 76-64 triumph.
Needing to roll its biggest competitor for the YL2M title in a qualifying final, Casey pushed past Warrandyte through the middle terms to leave the home crowd stunned.
Casey coach Phil Thomas put the victory down to negating the Venom’s outside game while his talls crashed through the key to decimate any hope of a Warrandyte fight-back.
“Really good night – the boys did really well,” Thomas said.
“I think we just did a better job of dealing with their three-point shooting better.
“Being the bigger side we used our height a bit more to our advantage.
“Ryan Sinclair had 10 points in the first quarter, which was a really good start for us as well.”
After conceding two regular season clashes to the Venom, the psychological advantage of knocking off the top seed one week into the finals has given the Casey men a great deal of confidence heading into their preliminary final on Saturday night against Mornington.
“We probably could end up playing them again in the grand final in two weeks – we now know we can beat them,” Thomas said.
“We didn’t beat them during the regular season – and whoever we match up with next week, we’ve had a win over so there’s some good confidence going in.”
Thomas praised the efforts of Aaron Bower (19 points) and Sam Pike (9 points, 9 rebounds) for their offensive efforts as well as Pike’s steadfast guarding of the Venom’s basket.
Thomas’ Cavaliers will play the first-of-two finals at The Fortress on Saturday night against Mornington. The Cavaliers senior men host Geelong in an elimination final on Saturday from 8pm at home after wrapping up the BIG V Division-1 Watson Conference minor premiership with a 63-48 win over Camberwell.
In a dogged clash on Saturday night, Casey struggled to shake off Camberwell until the dying minutes as both sides struggled to up their shooting percentage.
Bevan Camilleri (12 points) knocked down a crucial pair of threes to blow open the game while the Cavaliers were best served by Brad Szalek (14 points), Matt Witherden (9 points, 15 rebounds) and Brent Hobba (6 points, 16 rebounds). The 17-5 record is Casey’s best in its BIG V history and will serve as a launching pad for the side’s inaugural Division-1 finals’ campaign.
Unfortunately for the ladies the season came to a premature end as neither North East nor Keysborough could get the points to enable the Cavaliers to sneak into the finals.
