Above: Warrior Damien Kent, Cranbourne’s Justin McMillin, Jonathan Hawes and Hayden Taylor. By Ben Hope
THE Cranbourne Cavaliers had a thrilling start to their debut Big V season, with a narrow win against the Pakenham Warriors on Sunday.
Cavaliers Coach Cory Smith said the team managed to slow the Warriors down during the second half after trailing by 13 points at half-time.
“We led for the first three minutes and didn’t get in front again until we had about two minutes to go,” Smith said.
“We’ve always had trouble with Pakenham. When we played them in the MMBL they beat us the last eight times.
“We had a bit of a different team this time. They hadn’t seen about half of our guys while we knew 85 to 90 per cent of their side. We had a bit of a surprise factor.”
After falling behind in the first quarter a reinvigorated Cavaliers team emerged from half-time and began to make up the lost ground.
“In the second half the boys put a lot more pressure on and Pakenham started to miss some shots,” Smith said.
“We had a lot more free throws in the end, which we shot badly in the first half and second we got better. In the last quarter we managed to score on eight from 12 attempts.”
Cavaliers captain Mark Holman used his experience to keep his team in the game, making six from eight free-throw attempts.
Football recruit Andrew Cotton proved he was playing the right game by making the Cavaliers top score (13 points, eight rebounds) and Jonathan Hawes (11,11) also proved valuable for the Cranbourne team.
“A few of the young guys also got everyone going by getting out there and showing their enthusiasm,” Smith said.
“Players like Jake Sparshott, Jayden McMillin and Justin McMillin all made a big difference.”
In the final three minutes the Cavaliers scored nine points to get them over the line for a 56-47 victory.
Smith said the Cranbourne supporters at Cardinia Life made it feel like a home game.
“The crowd was nice and loud, and that made all the difference in the end,” he said.
“If we can get that many people to our away games then our home games will be awesome.”
The Cavaliers will face the Camberwell Dragons this Saturday night in their first home game for the season. Last time they met, Cranbourne had to chase down a 30-point lead set by the Dragons early in the game.
“We managed to climb back to only lose by 10 points,” Smith said.
“If we can come out strong and get a good start – which is something we struggle to do – we will have a good go at it.”
