By Lachlan Mitchell
Casey Cavaliers were back on court on Saturday after a disappointing showing against the Frankston Blues last week.
Both the men and women teams were trying to recover from tough losses.
The men’s clash went into overtime against the Blues, eventually losing by 16 points, while the women fell five points short of a rampaging Frankston side featuring several Australian internationals.
Both Cavaliers sides were looking for redemption against Knox Raiders at Casey Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The women were on court first and took the battle right up to the Raiders’ side.
Knox led by a hard-fought six points at quarter time.
Raiders small forward Kara Tessari made the Cavalier defenders sweat as she proved to be a major offensive threat.
An even second term continued to see the gap stay at six points.
Monique Conti continued to make her presence felt from the paint scoring six points in the term.
A crucial third quarter saw the Cavaliers outscore the Raiders 15-21, leveling the score at 57 all going into the final quarter.
The Raiders started the final term with a nine-point opening run before a Cavaliers time-out was called to slow the tempo.
Shortly after the restart Conti was back in business on the scoresheet and scored a much needed three to close the gap to four points.
A flurry of points from the Cavaliers, which included a Conti three and a Rachel Bell jump shot, helped the Casey side grab the lead with four minutes left on the clock.
But as the seconds ticked down, some late free-throws and a Leah Santomaggio three-pointer saw the Cavaliers lose in the 82-86 final scoreline.
Bell finished with 27 points in the tight loss, while Louise Brown was influential under the ring with 13 rebounds.
The loss leaves the Cavaliers at 4-4 in their inaugural season of NBL1.
The men fared much better in the clash against the Raiders on Saturday night winning a tight game 80-76.
The Cavs were able to stretch the margin out to 11 just before halftime to keep distance with the Knox based side in a contested opening half.
The men had to hold on, as the Raiders launched a last-term onslaught to get within four points of the Cavaliers.
A 23–27 final term almost saw the Raiders clinch victory.
A strong defensive showing from the Cavaliers was good enough to ward off any potential comeback.
Jordan Bell had a day to remember as he had 21 points and a game-high 14 rebounds at both ends of the court.
Cavaliers coach David Peters has credited his sides hard work and determination in securing the victory after a run of narrow losses.
“It just felt like a lot of hard work over the past six or seven weeks,” he explained.
“It just started coming to fruition and the things that we have been working on it all just clicked.
“The players had a really good idea of what worked and we just put our best foot forward, so it’s exciting to see.”
The men had a gruelling overtime loss to the Frankston Blues last round, taking a lot of experience out of the match.
“We learned a lot from our over-time loss against Frankston, being brand new in the league, sometimes it takes a little bit longer to feel and find out what gets you over the line,” Peters said.
The Cavaliers will next make the trip to Tasmania to play the Hobart Chargers on Friday.
