Cavs solid at season’s end

By Justin Robertson
FINALS have been out of reach for the Cranbourne Cavs for some time now, but they still continue to improve their winning percentage with a solid 16-point win over Darebin at Cranbourne Stadium on Saturday night.
It was their seventh win (70-54) for the season and they now sit equal fifth with rivals Pakenham as the season comes to an end next week.
Cavs coach Cory Smith said despite the hard running efforts in first quarter, his team played at a mediocre level for the rest of the game.
“Our first quarter help set up the win, but to be honest, we played fairly average after that,” he said.
“We just did enough after quarter time and didn’t play as well as we had hoped.”
The Cavs exploded out of the blocks in the first quarter with a 24-10 lead and extended that margin by two points by the main break (40-24).
After half time the Cavs piled on 17 points to Darebin’s 14 and the lead shot out to 19 points heading into the last term (57-38).
With the season almost over and no finals campaigns to consider for both sides, the Cavs were outscored 16-13 in what Smith described as an “average” display.
“We just didn’t shoot as well as we did last week and we lost some of our hard running game after the first break,” he said.
“The boys needed to be reminded to stay focused on the game quite a bit this week, which was something they did on their own last week.”
Jayden McMillin top scored for the Cavs with 25 points and 16 rebounds, and Smith praised his defensive efforts.
“He manned up on their best scorer and kept him to two points in the second half,” he said.
“He was happier with that, than how much he scored.”
Justin McMillin (16, 5) and Matthew Orchard (8, 2) also put up solid contributions.
The Cavs will play their final game of the season this Sunday against Camberwell at the Waverley Basketball Centre and Smith said they’ll be looking for another win.
“They won’t take us lightly after we beat them last time and we’ll be hoping to repeat that form as they go into the finals,” he said.
“We just want to finish the season off well and have a good final game.”