By JARROD POTTER
A CAVALIER finish to the Big V season was forced on Casey following its seven-point defeat by Keilor Thunder in the Big V Division 2 Women’s grand final series.
The Cavaliers fought valiantly and contained Keilor’s potent three-point weapons Jess Francke and Jodi Impey for most of the match, but the chips fell the Thunder’s way to snare the championship in the second match of the series.
Casey’s shot selection through the first half was poor – shooting 7/31 from the field and were outrebounded by the Thunder.
Half-time invigorated the Cavaliers’ resolve and they came out firing.
Casey pushed ahead in the third quarter – with a customary Jade Foot three-pointer the go-ahead shot at 36-35 – recouping an 11-point deficit at one stage to claim a 40-36 lead at the final change.
Casey’s charge to the front brought the 13th man into the game – with the crowd roaring at both ends of the court, gearing the Cavaliers onwards.
In spite of their strong defence, Keilor found more avenues to basket – including a step-back three from Francke to draw level 43-43 with five minutes remaining.
From there Casey couldn’t hit their shots when it mattered most.
Keilor kept their shots ticking over to extend the lead to 52-45 by the final siren.
Shot selection and free-throw percentages once again will leave a black mark on the Casey performance – as with last year’s grand final series against Coburg – with the Cavaliers shooting 10/28 free throws and 27.4 per cent from the field.
“To be perfectly honest we had our chances and didn’t take them,” Casey coach Mark Holman said.
“Showed a tremendous amount of character fighting back.
“At the same time we weren’t good again from the free throw line, didn’t stick to our gameplan and we paid the price for it.”
Casey’s defensive trio Lara Pauline (six points, seven rebounds, seven assists) was exceptional and a clear standout performer for the Cavaliers with Renee Swagemakers (six points) and Keira Beswick (six points, six rebounds) excelled under the immense Thunder pressure – and crucially kept the Cavaliers’ scoreboard ticking over.
Star recruit Leah Swain (five points, five rebounds) returned from work commitments for her first Big V match since July and fought an entertaining battle against Impey all night under the ring.
“Lara was really, really good,” Holman said.
“Renee Swags she shut down Impey – gave her that task at the start of the game and she did that and also provided offensively grabbing six points.
“Stats don’t really show what she did as she shut down Impey.”
Back-to-back grand final losses is a cruel way to finish their inaugural two seasons in the Big V, but Holman said the roster stepped up in a tougher competition this year and should be proud of that achievement.
“The girls just did a fantastic job throughout the year,” Holman said. “Two (grand final) losses are hard breaking but they’ve made two grand finals back-to-back and the competition got a lot harder this year and stepped up their game and made the last weekend again.”
BIG V SCOREBOARD
KEILOR THUNDER 52 d CASEY CAVALIERS 45
CASEY: Pauline (6 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists), Beswick (6P, 6R), Szalek (6P, 4R), Swagemakers (6P), Mcfarlane (6P), Swain (5P, 5R), Keates (6R). KEILOR: Francke (16P, 10R), Impey (10P, 9R), Black (8P, 6R).
