By JARROD POTTER
BIG V – ROUND 9
EVEN when nothing is going their way, the Cavaliers somehow find a way to eke out the win.
When the bad days come, the good sides still manage the victory and Casey proved no different on Sunday in an 83-82 overtime thriller against Sunbury.
It had to hold on against the Jets, which scrambled to try and make a happy ending for guard Nathan Sellwood’s 350th match.
Point guard Ishmael Sanders (33 points) proved problematic for the Casey defence – as Stewart Baird gave all his best small defenders a shot at halting the Carson-Newman alumnus’ scoring spree.
The Jets soared past the Cavaliers in the fourth term as the afro warrior Mitch Newton (16 points, 13 rebounds) started making his mark.
Casey stuck to its defensive tasks in the dying stages of regulation time; grinding the Jets into poor positions from the zone and forcing the ‘get-out-of-jail’ shots from the mercurial Sanders.
The Cavaliers’ work up the other end was far more clean-cut to the final buzzer.
The long shots started sinking from Matt Witherden (12 points, five rebounds) and Deneefe (six points) while Dean Johnson (14 points), Bevan Camilleri (13 points, nine rebounds) and Brent Hobba (nine points, 11 rebounds) pushed the Jets in the key.
Casey did more of the same in overtime to finally shrug off the dogged Sunbury line-up and while the points went to the hosts, Baird was less than pleased with the effort on Sunday.
“We saw the result and they hung around – at the end of the day, the better team on the day didn’t win,” Baird said.
“Across the board they played better basketball for them and we were just lucky in the end that we hit some clutch shots in the last quarter and overtime.
“Switched up to a zone – I kept it in the back pocket – and it provided enough to stop their momentum and make them think about what they were doing.
“We were four-six down at that stage and then we made three or four stops and scored the other way.
“We had a bad day the week before and were nicely touched up by Melton while this time we had a bad day and managed to eke out a win against a pretty decent team.
“The ladder means nothing in this competition at the moment – anyone from one to 12 could make the playoffs and once there anyone could wreak damage on any given night.”
Life gets no easier this week for the Cavaliers who are heading up to Shepparton on Saturday night before returning for an early afternoon battle against Warrandyte at home on Sunday.
“There’s no love coming out of head office, that’s for sure, when it comes to the fixture.
“Melton twice on the back of a double-header weekend, another double-header this weekend,” Baird said.
“But the good thing is we’ve played both teams, beaten both teams and feel pretty good about where we’re at against both teams.
“No surprises and we know what we need to do.”
Casey’s women fell at the hands of Coburg 61-75 as Tarryn Wilkin (14 points) and Bec Magdich (14 points) led the charge, while the youth men also lost – going down 72-81 to Corio Bay.
