By JARROD POTTER
BIG V DIVISION 2 – SEMI-FINAL REVIEW
BACK to the drawing board, Keysborough will needs to battle its way out of a preliminary final if it wants a shot at revenge against Western Port following a 57-67 semi-final loss.
Battling Western Port is never an easy prospect – with Manny Hendrix (28 points) and Peder Whelan (six points, 13 rebounds) creating headaches for any opponent – and Keysborough did itself no favours by letting the Steelers rapidly shoot out of the blocks.
At one stage in the first term the Cougars trailed 4-19 and had to absorb some pressure to negate Western Port’s free-wheeling rampage.
The Cougars rallied through the second – slashing the margin to five points late in the term as Malcolm Heard (16 points, 17 rebounds) and David Smith (15 points, seven rebounds) gallantly dug in.
Smith’s hustle in particular stood out as he put in second and third efforts at loose balls and attempted steals while Heard had his hands full under the ring against Steelers’ centre Whelan and chopped out impressively considering the height differential.
The margin would balloon back out before the half though as Hendrix eased back and slammed in a three-pointer to beat the buzzer.
The heat didn’t just stay on court as the sides shuffled down the hall towards the change rooms. While words and a few shoves between both sides were exchanged, it didn’t boil over into full on mayhem.
The elastic band threatened to snap as Western Port pushed ahead through the third, at one stage extending the gap to 15 before Keysborough went on a shooting spree to end the quarter.
With 58 seconds left, John Constance (five points) and Heard combined to sink seven points and whittle the margin down to 10.
It was that 10-point advantage earned through the first term that came back to haunt the Cougars as they couldn’t rouse any significant offence in the fourth term, but held on to keep the Steelers relatively scoreless too.
It left a 57-67 score-line by the final buzzer, as Keysborough coach Nathan Vogt thought shooting dogged the Cougars’ effort.
“Obviously was a night we weren’t shooting the ball too well,” Vogt said.
“We shot the ball at 29 per cent from the field and only shot 53 per cent from the line and it’s hard to win any game when you’re shooting that poorly.”
Vogt praised the efforts of Heard and Smith, who were crying out for a little more offensive support.
“Dave and Malcolm kept us in the game at both ends of the floor, I thought Malcolm was fantastic defensively – anchoring our D – and Dave with his hustle was also great,” Vogt said. “Both of them offensively – we were trying to get them in the second and third quarters as many shots as we could and really couldn’t get them looks that they needed.”
It leaves the Cougars in a do-or-die preliminary final against age-old rivals Craigieburn, but with a few tricks left up their sleeve – and Vogt thinks his side can get that job done once again.
“We’ve got Craigieburn at home and understand them pretty well,” Vogt said.
“We didn’t show our full hand last time we played them, keeping some stuff in the back pocket in case we met them again.
“They’re a quality side and I reckon maybe they really could do a lot of damage to a lot of sides but we match up to them pretty well.”
Tipoff for the Keysborough versus Craigieburn preliminary final is 8pm at Springers Leisure Centre.
