By JARROD POTTER
BIG V – ROUND 11
TURNOVERS, travels and “the injury”.
Three big T’s turned Keysborough’s dominant half-time position against high-flying Melton to a 74-84 defeat.
Everything started promisingly for the Cougars, racing away with a 27-point first term as David Smith (four points, 11 rebounds) proved the difference under the ring.
He flew up and won a flurry of rebounds and despite giving away 10-15cm on some of his opponents, Smith terrorised the Thoroughbreds’ talls and fed the ball out at will to potent pairing Aaron Abrams (22 points, 10 rebounds) and Calvin Enge (20 points).
The only way to stop Smith in the first half was to poke his eyes out … literally. Smith was taken to hospital with a bleed in his eye after a contesting yet another rebound in the dying stages of the second term.
Coach Nathan Vogt had to switch up his roster as Smith left the stadium. It only got worse for Keysborough as fouls mounted on Abrams and Ben Morwood (10 points, five rebounds) and forced the duo to take the pine at inopportune times.
Despite the obstacles, Keysborough held in the contest under the defensive glass. Enge clamped down on Melton’s Ivan Harris (26 points) and the familiar faces of Adam Sliwinski, Chris Demchyshyn, John Constance and Steve Haddrell also sacrificed their own games for the team good.
But Keysy coughed it up way too much; the turnover count ballooned, travels were plentiful and generally the hard work at the other end was not converted.
Harris put the match on ice with an eight-point run in the fourth term, knocking in a trey and a couple of field goals in a silky minute-and-a-half of basketball to put Melton out of reach.
“I think we were really rattled when they took Dave out,” Vogt said. “Obviously that hurt us – Dave was having a fantastic game and on track to really blow the stat-sheet apart.
“That intensity and a lot of what we did today revolved around getting Dave inside, because we knew he was going to be a difficult mismatch and when you lose a big part of what your game-plan is centred around, it’s going to hurt and it did today.”
Keysborough’s women were also knocked over on home court with a 27-point loss to Coburg. Genevieve Abbott (22 points, 15 rebounds) continued her stellar season while Tamara Matecic (12 points) also stepped up for crucial stats.
After the Queen’s Birthday bye, Keysborough’s men head away to Shepparton before facing Warrandyte at Rowville, while the women head up to North East’s Wodonga court on Sunday 19 June.
In SEABL results, the Rangers men had a fine victory over Nunawading, taking to the foreign court emphatically with an 85-73 triumph. Surging at the end, Dandenong’s rally was helmed by Lucas Walker (20 points, 11 rebounds), Daequon Montreal (14 points, nine rebounds) and Lucas Barker (13 points, seven rebounds).
Dandenong’s women were downed 72-80 by Nunawading after a disastrous last term. Dandenong could only muster five points down the stretch to concede a three-quarter-time lead. The Rangers were led by the usual firm Lauren Scherf (22 points, 12 rebounds) and Clare Papavs (17 points). The visitors received a boost to the playing ranks with championship winning forward Jacinta Kennedy taking the court for the first time in 2016, while Rachel Antoniadou has also returned in recent weeks after her first year at Florida State University.
Dandenong hosted Ballarat on Sunday after the Journal went to print.
