By Hayley Wildes
After a regular season that built nicely towards the business end, the Casey Cavaliers State Championship men unfortunately weren’t able to carry on that momentum in the first round of the Big V finals.
Facing the Hawthorn Magic at Boorondara Sports Complex on Saturday night, the Cavs played a great 37 minutes of basketball, but their season came to a close due to a grim final three minutes of play.
The Cavs came out firing and established a 17-9 lead after five minutes of play as Ben Louis pushed the pace and attacked the rim.
After a timeout, the Magic found their groove and fought their way back into the contest, owning a one-point lead at the first break, 21-20.
In almost a carbon copy of the first quarter, Casey again jumped out to a 32-24 lead early in the second term as Louis, Raheem Lemons and Brent Hobba drained big buckets.
In what was quickly turning into a game runs, it was Hawthorn’s turn to turn up the heat on offence and by half time, the Cavs lead was just two points, 39-37.
It was a high-octane third quarter as both teams fought tooth and nail. Casey held an eight-point advantage with just over three minutes to play in the quarter, but Hawthorn – led by sharp-shooter Jack Barry – reduced the Cavs’ lead to just one-point with a quarter to play.
The crowd hung on every possession and it looked like it was going down to the wire with scores tied at 67-all with 3:20 left on the clock.
When buckets were needed down the stretch, Casey went cold and was unable to stop Hawthorn from pulling away.
The Cavs scored just one bucket – a Brandon Polk jump shot – in the final 3:20 of the game and the Hawks were simply sublime finishing the game on a 13-2 run with Jack Barry and Nelson Kirksey hitting clutch triples.
Hawthorn claimed an 80-69 win and ended Casey’s season in frustrating fashion. Matt Donlan (16 points, 3 rebounds) top-scored for Casey, while Raheem Lemons (13 points, 10 rebounds, 3 steals) finished his dominant season with yet another double-double.
Ben Louis’ (12 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists) efforts typified his season – involved in everything and always fighting for an extra possession.
Despite a bitterly disappointing final three minutes of the season, Casey produced some great basketball throughout the season and there is definitely a lot to build on going forward.
Casey fans still have a lot to look forward to in the remainder of 2018 Big V finals, with the Division 1 and Youth League 2 women tipping off their respective finals campaigns this weekend.
The Division 1 women travel to Geelong to face the Supercats on Saturday night in the first game of a best-of-three series for a place in the grand final.
Meanwhile, the Youth League 1 women host the Frankston Blues at Casey Stadium from 8pm on Saturday night. They can punch their ticket to the grand final with a win.
