By JARROD POTTER
ONLY one more win separates Casey Cavaliers’ men’s team from a BIG V grand-final series berth.
Putting in the hard yards on Saturday night, the long road-trip to Keilor Basketball Stadium paid off for the Cavaliers’ fans in attendance – watching on as Stewart Baird’s charges claimed a big win over the Keilor Thunder 84-58.
Matt Pebole (27 points, 13 rebounds) and Matt Witherden (19 points, 6 rebounds) found their long-range shooting accuracy as the Thunder had no means to stop the Cavaliers out wide.
Evenly matched until the third quarter, the Cavaliers opened the floodgates in the final term to shoot 32 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field.
The icing on the cake was a phenomenal shot from a centre as Ash Szalek (11 points, 6 rebounds) drained his fourth trey of the season.
Facing a physical side in Keilor, Baird was impressed the Cavaliers could take it to the Thunder in that regard and beat them at their own hard-edged game despite what he thought was a lacklustre outing for Casey.
“They’re always tough here and you always know they’re going to play really hard,” Casey coach Stewart Baird said.
“I think… next to us they’re probably the most physical team in the league, where our physicality works against other teams in the playoffs these guys bring it just as much.”
“It’s great to get away with a 26-point win when really – apart from a couple of patches – we didn’t play great basketball.”
Injured guard Chris Murray (calf strain) is unlikely to return for the weekend’s fixtures, but would be able to get up if the Cavaliers move onto grand final series.
Baird praised the efforts of Steve Michalski (12 points) to step up and fill Murray’s boots at the point.
“I can’t speak highly enough of Steve,” Baird said.
“He’s the kind of player every coach wants to have at some stage.
“He’s not the most talented basketballer around, but he works really hard and you give him an instruction and he just follows it to the letter… if he thinks he needs to change something he comes and talks to you… more often than not he’s right.
“He’s a great kid to coach and really stood up when we needed him too.”
Casey will host Keilor in the second semi-final match on Saturday night from 8pm and if necessary, a third-and-deciding clash is scheduled for Sunday at 12.30pm.
“We’ll work on some stuff that was lacking tonight (Saturday),” Baird said.
“There’s not a whole lot I can teach them at this stage, it’s just about fine-tuning and I think at our place, without saying it’s a done deal, I’d rather be us than them.” – Keilor having to come down to Cranbourne on the weekend.
