At home Cavaliers come unstuck

By Ben Hope
THE home ground advantage wasn’t enough to get the Cranbourne Cavaliers across the line when they met Mildura at Cranbourne Basketball Stadium on Sunday.
Cavaliers head coach Cory Smith said the defeat was disappointing but it was more of the same after his team started slow before rallying in the second half.
“In the third quarter we started to rally but it would be great if we didn’t wait until we were 20 points down before we made a comeback,” Smith said. “It is disappointing to see the same pattern every week.”
After beating Darebin 76-61 the previous night, Mildura Heat looked determined to do it again and ended the first quarter 30-14.
Sitting second on the division three ladder, the Heat charged through the second quarter with another 17 points taking them into half-time 24 points ahead of the Cavaliers.
But Cranbourne refused to give up and came out revitalised after half-time, closing the gap slightly with 24 points to 19 in the third quarter.
Despite a determined effort from the Cavaliers, Mildura proved too strong in the final quarter and ended the game 88-62.
The best scores for the Cavaliers came from Matthew Orchard, Justin Mcmillin, Jonathan Hawes and Jayden Mcmillan with 10 points each but it was too little in reply to 40 points from Mildura’s American import Kevin Smith.
“It sounds silly when you see the stats but we actually played pretty well against him,” Smith said.
“But the ball is always in his hands. He’s a big guy and he had a couple of impressive dunks that none of our guys had seen before.”
After the loss the Cavaliers will be desperate to get some points on the board this as they face Maccabi on Saturday at Bialik Stadium. But Maccabi won’t be an easybeat after moving to sixth on the ladder thanks to a round-four win against Warrandyte.
“After their win last week Maccabi might be a bit tougher than we thought,” Smith said.
“We always knew they were at our level so it should be a great game.”