Teamwork wins Big V crown

By Paul Pickering
DANDENONG reclaimed its Big V Youth League crown with a gutsy 82-80 win over Diamond Valley on Saturday night, clinching the grand final series two-nil in front of a healthy crowd at Stud Road.
The lead changed hands at every break, but the Rangers knuckled down in the dying minutes, holding the visitors scoreless for their last eight offensive sets to record a thrilling victory.
With Dandenong’s Championship Men and Championship Women bowing out of the playoffs prematurely, the Rangers development squad was left to fly the flag for one of Victoria’s most successful clubs.
So, while it might not have been the Big V title Dandenong mostcoveted, the rousing win allowed the club to salvage some silverware from an otherwise disappointing post-season.
After winning game one at Diamond Valley, the Rangers had two chances to secure the title, but they were determined to end it on Saturday night.
Rangers coach Stewart Baird conceded that it was far from pretty, but praised his charges for their willingness to grind the game out.
“To Diamond Valley’s credit, they did a great job of stopping our running game and taking us out of that free-flowing style that we like to play,” Baird said.
Baird admitted it was a very stressful game to coach, as everyone tightened up a bit and his players weren’t just hitting the shots that they had the week before.
“At three-quarter-time, I stressed to the guys that it was really going to come down to who was prepared to give it that bit more in the last quarter. We had been talking about that all week, and I think we were able to call on some of that stuff in the end,” Baird said.
Forward Roy Brittliff was the match-winner for the Rangers with 19 points and 13 rebounds, while centre Mehmed Bektas (17, 10) and skipper Daniel Dukes (14) also played a significant role in the victory.
Baird was also keen to acknowledge the on-court leadership of 20-year-old guard James De Neefe (8), but it was Brittliff – the series MVP – that earned the coach’s highest praise.
“Roy was outstanding for the whole game,” Baird said.
“He took it upon himself to get it done when it mattered, he was a monster inside and he grabbed some huge rebounds at critical moments of the game.”
After coaching Dandenong to a disappointing seventh-place finish in 2007, Baird was thrilled by his team’s resurgence this year.
“There was a fair degree of individualism going on at different stages last season,” he reflected.
“But ‘team’ is the key word with this group now, and in the second half of the season they just gelled together as a group and you could see they really enjoyed playing together.”
Not surprisingly, Baird reported that the group also enjoyed celebrating together into the twilight hours of Sunday morning.