By JARROD POTTER
BIG V – ROUND 5
RIVALRY resumed for Casey Cavaliers in Sunday’s 73-63 Big V victory over Shepparton.
Like peas in a pod, the sides have shared fortunes and charted the same path in recent seasons, but even when deprived of key personnel, the Cavs are capable of sowing plenty of worry throughout the division.
With Brent Hobba (ankle) and Lester Strong unavailable for the clash, it left a lot to the other tall-timber to shoulder the workload and halt the Gators’ imports Reginald Fuller (25 points, 10 rebounds) and Deshawn Gibbons (three points).
The mission was well and truly accomplished early as Shepparton trailed Casey 23-11 at the first change as Dean Johnson (three points, nine rebounds) carried plenty of defensive duties alongside Matt Witherden (11 points) and Ben Louis (13 points, five assists, four steals) – with the latter clamping down on Fuller.
Louis stuffed the stats into every column as he soared to the hoop and generally terrorised the Gators at both ends while James Deneefe (16 points, 10 rebounds) flew like a centre in his first double-double of the season.
Fuller would get off the leash through the final term, but Casey’s all-round approach continued to cause headaches throughout the league.
All Cavaliers – even youth men call-ups Sam Pike and Nathan Dodgson – held up their end of the bargain to restrict the powerful Gators’ attack from start to finish.
“We’ve mirrored each other to a large degree and respect their organisation and the playing group and I’m confident that respect is mutual,” Casey coach Stewart Baird said. “We set ourselves for it – knew we had a good half of basketball the week before against Camberwell and want to do everything to extend that.
“The boys were good – the best 30-33 mins of basketball we’ve played this year.”
While the numbers are nice, the stuff that never gets onto the sheet impressed Baird across the roster, especially with Johnson in the post.
“What you’d call workmanlike I’d suppose – doing the basics without getting the glory, but it made a huge contribution to our effort,” Baird said.
“Rebounding is always a big focus for us and a lot of that grunt work would fall to Dean … he’s no fuss, wants to contribute and he does week-in, week-out.”
Casey heads to Keysborough for the men’s sides first match since 2014 as another old rivalry re-ignites in Division 1.
“We’ve set ourselves for this weekend too – they’ve been putting up huge numbers and for us it’s all about defence,” Baird said.
“That’s fine as that’s all it’s been about this season – we’re looking to curtail their productivity and put in a great team defensive effort.
“Outside of that, it’s down to us doing our thing, the way we want to do it and not getting sucked into anything else.
“They’ll probably have a big and noisy crowd and there will be plenty said on the court, but we have to stay focused and do the things we do well.”
Traveling up to Wodonga is never easy, but Casey’s women managed to get the job done just in a 52-50 win over North East.
The low-scoring affair favoured the hosts early – shooting out of the blocks to an 18-9 quarter time lead. It took a power-packed third term for the Cavs to snatch the lead out from under North East.
Tarryn Wilkin (15 points, 15 rebounds) and Jess Szalek (13 points, eight rebounds) burdened the responsibilities under the basket while Ruchelle McCracken (eight points, five rebounds) and Cyanne Mather (seven points, four rebounds) also featured prominently on the stat-sheet.
Casey’s women host Mornington on Saturday night.
In a foul-filled clash, Casey’s youth men took a 71-58 win over Pakenham. The whistle went all night as 44 fouls were called across the game, but Casey had enough to get the job done via Nathan Dodgson (13 points, 11 rebounds) and Sam Pike (13 points, nine rebounds). They travel to Mildura on Saturday.
