Cavaliers are riding high

By Ben Hope
THE Cranbourne Cavaliers are back in the top four of the Big V division three ladder after a 10-point win against Darebin at the Cranbourne Basketball Stadium on Saturday night.
In a fierce competition both teams were fighting to get out of the bottom three after both won against Maccabi the previous week.
Coach Cory Smith said it was great to see the Cavaliers play a couple of winning games after a three-round drought.
“We played a couple of teams lower in the ladder for our last two games so to get those couple of wins really justifies where I thought we should be in the league,” he said.
“In the last couple of games the boys have been playing a different game, pushing down the court harder, moving the ball faster and being more aggressive.”
Cranbourne’s regular high-scorer Justin McMillin landed some early three-pointers to give the Cavaliers a 20-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
However Darebin wasn’t prepared to give up and managed to stay in the game with only one point separating the teams at times during a close final half.
Smith said his team had worked hard to improve its position in the competition.
“We are slowly getting there and coming together,” Smith said.
“As a team we have figured out a bit more about how we need to play to win. We need to be getting about 90 points a game, then we will be hard to beat.”
Justin McMillin was the Cavaliers’ top scorer with 20 points, but Andrew Cotton (14) and Jayden McMillin (14) weren’t far behind.
“It was probably Jayden’s best game yet, he started on the bench and ended up playing 34 minutes,” Smith said.
In response, Darebin’s Erfan Momeni managed a massive 35 points but it wasn’t enough to get Darebin over the line and the Cavaliers took the game 82-72.
The Cavaliers will meet Warrandyte again this week and will be looking for a win after losing 81-60 the last time the teams met in round three.