BASKETBALL
THE Southern Peninsula Sharks division two Men’s side has suffered their first loss for the season to the ninth-placed Maccabi Warriors in round six of the Big V.
What was slightly unexpected, the Warriors clawed their way back after trailing by nine points in the third quarter to sink a last-minute jump-shot for an upset one-point victory (65-64) on Saturday 28 April.
The Warriors tied it up with just over two minutes to go and as the Sharks tried to bide their time and throw up an unsuccessful shot, Jared Mintez dished it up to team mate Andrew Sharp who nailed the final shot of the game and deflated the Sharks undefeated balloon in the final 45 seconds.
The Sharks’ State Championship Women’s side also suffered a narrow loss to the visiting Waverley Falcons (72-76) after a 16 to 6 last quarter from the visitors. The Falcons locked in and tightened the screws on the Sharks’ usually up-tempo offence to secure a four-point victory with the Sharks’ Peyton Little (18 pts) and Jaz Shelley (17 pts, 8 ast) putting in solid performances.
Shelley said they were probably the underdogs heading into the match but couldn’t be happier with the way the side played.
“I think we have definitely surprised the league so far with the team’s average age being around 20,” she said.
“They (Waverley Falcons) just out-bullied us towards the end of the game and were stronger and bigger than us. We did very well to keep it up against them, but we couldn’t maintain it in the last 10 minutes or so.
“We have a reasonably tough game next week [against McKinnon Cougars] so it should be a good test for us.”
In the Men’s division one, Western Port Steelers (92-82) ran away with a 10-point victory over the home side, Warrnambool Seahawks, while the Chelsea Gulls suffered their second loss for the season against Warrandyte Venom (71-86).
Majority of the focus was on the return of Nathan Sobey (21pts in 40mins) to the arc for Warrnambool but the visiting Steelers started out with a 27 to 16 run and never looked back. Dylan Travis (32 pts, 5 treys) racked up another 30-plus points game to help provide the Steelers with their fourth straight victory.
Scores were tied at half-time between Chelsea and Warrandyte but after suffering a couple of losses the Venom came out and dominated the second half with Sprewell (33 pts) and Moore (24 pts) opening the winning margin to 15 points.
In the Women’s division one, the Chelsea Gulls dominated Warrandyte Venom (89-58) by more than 30 points, while the Steelers were defeated by Warrnambool (55-40) in a low scoring contest.
The opening quarter was full of excitement in the Gulls match against Venom as it concluded with the Gulls leading by one point (26-25) at the end of the quarter. But the Venom weren’t able to keep up with Chelsea as they managed to put just seven points on the board in the second quarter. From there on the Gulls were in the driver’s seat and added space upon space in the third and fourth quarters.
Apart from the opening quarter in the Steelers game against Warrnambool, the Steelers could only put together single digits on the board in the remaining quarters. The Mermaids joined them in the fourth but stuck it out for a 15-point win to finish their weekend.
The Mornington Breakers women’s side went down by a similar margin to Blackburn (64-50) as the home team took full advantage of the Breakers’ slow start to lead by nine points after the first break.
A tough struggle after quarter time provided an entertaining match, with the Breakers outscoring the hosts in the end of the second half. The buffer was enough for the Vikings to add their third win for the season. Ashleigh Wright was a board off a double with 16pts for the Breakers, as Bridget Gamble and Fiona Darnell collected 14 and 11 points respectively.