BASKETBALL
THE Southern Peninsula Sharks Big V championship side continue to progress through the finals series with a two-point victory over the Waverley Falcons in round two on Sunday 12 August.
The Sharks have made their way from fifth on the normal season ladder to the preliminary final where they’ll be taking on the top-rated side Knox Raiders on Saturday 18 August.
Southern Peninsula Sharks basketball operations manager Lucas Allen said the side have overcome similar circumstances already this season and will be looking to do the same against Knox.
“It’ll be the same circumstances as they have faced in their first couple of games, lose and you’re out, but they’re pretty confident heading in,” Allen said.
Allen said their win over the Falcons (76-78) was a tough battle with the Sharks’ women showing real determination to break through.
“They got a bit of a lead and were able to maintain it until the final whistle,” he said.
“It came down to the last couple of plays. Jaz Shelley came up big and hit a three (point shot), and the women did well to defend in the dying seconds of the game to make sure they couldn’t get a shot off.
“It was a strong win.”
Jaz Shelley has also been selected to join the under-18 Australian team which will compete at the FIBA Asia under-18 Championships, in hopes to qualify for the under-19 FIBA World Cup.
In the Men’s division one, Chelsea Gulls scored a crucial 10-point victory over the Western Port Steelers (94-104) away from home on Saturday 11 August.
The Gulls claimed the first of the best-of-three semi-final and will get the advantage of having the final two matches played at their home court.
Western Port Steelers basketball operations manager, Tyler Molloy, still held hope that the Steelers could turn the result around.
“We turned the ball over a fair bit more than we had in previous matches and one of their guys (Mitch Riggs) ended up shooting seven from 10 three-pointers which we didn’t really expect,” he said.
“We’ve looked back at some game tapes and will focus more on defence and hopefully we can score two [wins] on the road.
“It’s no easy feat but we’re confident we can grab one of the games and then anything can happen from there.”
Chelsea Gulls head coach Peter Caspersz was stoked to get the win away from home, and said that he wasn’t surprised to see Mitch Riggs play as well as he did.
“He did shoot out of his skin (seven three-pointers from his last seven attempts) but he’s a SEABL player so it was no surprise to see him shoot so well,” he said. “It’d be great if he can convert it again on Saturday.”
Caspersz said that he expects the Steelers to come into the final two matches with “something up their sleeve” but is confident that they can put another win on the board.
“I’m hoping that we can wrap it up on the Saturday and put it to bed,” he said.
“We know we can do better [than last game]. We let them shoot at about 53 per cent so that’s something we’re definitely working on and we’ll try and shut them down a bit better this time around.”
The winner of the Chelsea Gulls/Western Port Steelers semi-final will play the winner of the Keysborough Cougars/Shepparton Gators match-up.
The Gators won the first of three matches at home but will head to Rowville Secondary College (Cougars home court) for the remaining two games.
