Cavs pay penalty for free-throw failure

By Justin Robertson
THE Cranbourne Cavaliers couldn’t catch Pakenham after giving them an eight-point first quarter lead at Cranbourne Basketball Stadium on Saturday night.
The Cavs pegged the margin back to three points midway through the third quarter, but Pakenham steadied and skipped away to a sizeable lead and the Cavs crashed to a 69-83 loss, their seventh for the year.
Coach Cory Smith was happy with the way the team worked together but said his team needed to be focused mentally right from the start if they were to be competitive each week.
“We did manage to come back but they steadied and shot back out to a fair lead,” coach Smith said. “We couldn’t catch them after that.
“I think the difference was, they were a bit more intense with their play and we struggled with that early on,” he said. “We need to be ready to play from the start with a high level of intensity. We’re still a young side and we struggled to put four quarters together.”
Pakenham jumped the Cavs early, racing to an 11-4 lead during the first quarter, but Cranbourne clawed their way back within a basket late in the term only to concede three three-pointers close to buzzer time to trail 13-21 at the break.
The Cavs picked up their game in the second quarter, outscoring Pakenham by one point and reducing the margin at the long break to seven points, but still trailed 31-38.
It was in the third that the Cavs made their move and got within three points. But a late flurry of baskets extended Pakenham’s lead back out to eight points, to lead 61-53 in what was a high-scoring term for both teams.
A brave Cavs unit tried to gain the upper hand in the last term in front of their home crowd with some aggressive game play, but were unable to make the important shots, eventually going down by 14 points.
“The margin flattered Pakenham a little bit, but they hit their shots and we didn’t,” said Smith. “I think it came down to our poor free-throw shooting.”
The Cavs sank 10 from the line at 41.7 per cent, while Pakenham made 53.8 per cent of their free-throw shots. Field shooting was even, with the Cavs hitting the basket 45 per cent of the time while Pakenham shot at 48 per cent. Pakenham also won honours for their three-point sharp shooting, hitting 50 per cent from long range and the Cavs managed 38 per cent accuracy.
Smith reflected on his team’s poor free-throw shooting.
“We hit them OK at training, but don’t seem to hit them too well during games,” he said.
Jayden Mcmillin top scored for the Cavs with 18 points and was the only shining light up forward. Coach Smith said his work ethic, “never say die” attitude and sharp shooting, made him a regular MVP candidate week-in week-out.
Coach Smith was also pleased with the effort of his bench players.
“Some of the bench players got involved and made an impact which was good to see,” said Smith. “They got a lot of valuable playing time.”
Mathew Marshall, 11 points, Tim Parker, 7 points and Jake Sparshott, 7 points, all made valuable contributions to the scoreboard.
Smith admitted his team would find it hard to make the finals this year, after losing three in a row and slumping to sixth on the league ladder, but was still optimistic.
“Anything can still happen from here, but, we’ve made it hard for ourselves to make finals losing our last three games,” he said. “We’re not too far away from playing good basketball.”