By Marcus Uhe
There were mixed fortunes for the Casey Cavaliers’ sides on the weekend with back-to-back games for both the men’s and women’s teams in the NBL1 South competition.
The women split their games with one win and one loss, achieving their first victory of the campaign in the process, where the men suffered two heavy defeats.
A dominant first quarter from the Cavs’ women saw them blow their visiting Launceston opponents away early in the contest, outscoring the Tasmanians 54-22 in the first half on their way to a 84-60 victory.
Casey was dominant in every major statistic, shooting the ball more efficiently (10 per cent higher field goal percentage), cleaning the glass (56 rebounds to 24) and moving the ball better (28 assists to nine).
New Zealander Esra McGoldrick was the star of the contest, scoring 25 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.
They were unable to back up their win the following afternoon against Ringwood, however, falling seven points short of the Hawks on their home floor.
Neither side managed to pull-away at any stage in the contest until a costly turnover from the Cavs gifted the Hawks a fast break layup and pushed the margin to a game-high 10 points with two minutes remaining.
Lauren Van Kleunen did all that she could in the fourth quarter to will hear team to victory, shouldering the load on the offensive end on her way to a 23-point 13-rebound double-double, but it wasn’t enough to erase the deficit, finishing 80-73 in Ringwood’s favour.
McGoldrick was prominent once again, with another double-double of her own.
The men, by contrast, were held at arms-length all night by North West Tasmania on Saturday before letting go of the rope in the fourth quarter in the 79-111 blowout.
Poor shooting from beyond the three-point line cost the Cavs dearly, making just three of their 14 attempts, where their opponents had no such difficulty, shooting 48 per cent.
Guard Malcolm Bernard was busy in his time on the court, scoring 26 points and grabbing five rebounds in just 21 minutes.
It was a similar contest the following afternoon, when they suffered a 104-85 loss to Ringwood.
The last quarter begun with just five points separating the two sides before a 30-16 final quarter saw the Hawks fly away with the victory.
Once again, they allowed their opponents to shoot better from distance (55 per cent to 38) and fell short on the assist tally (30-18).
Preston Bungei almost played the entire contest but had an inefficient shooting performance, finishing with eight points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
Sidy Djitte was busy too, finishing with 24 points and nine rebounds.
Two games at home next week, against Nunawading and Frankston, will give both sides the chance to build some momentum as they near the halfway mark in the season.
The women sit 18th on the NBL1 South ladder and the men 17th.
