ALBURY-Wodonga Bandits coach Brad Chalmers was left frustrated and pleased after the Border outfit’s 17-point win over the Centre of Excellence.
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Pleased because his charges played as good a first half of basketball as they’ve managed all season.
Frustrated because they failed to reproduce it in the second half.
“Very good first half but the third quarter was the classic case of looking at the scoreboard,” Chalmers said.
“23-point lead, we’ve held them to 29 in the first half, we’ve probably thought these kids weren’t going to be any sort of match for us.
“And then a kid (Gabriel Hadley) who has had just two points in the first half comes out and has 21 in the second half, so that was a bit disappointing.
“But yeah, really solid first half, great defence, movement was good and obviously we shot the ball really well, couldn’t have asked for more.
“We then go the complete opposite and that is a cause for concern, because you can’t keep battling that inconsistency against teams with more firepower.”
Centre of Excellence coach Adam Caporn was relatively happy with the efforts of his largely-untested youngsters.
Caporn had just three regulars at his disposal, with the other six athletes all playing just their second games.
“Albury is a really tough team, I’ve got a lot of respect for this team and what they’re about,” Caporn said.
“They gave us a really good lesson in the first half.
“We weren’t ready to compete, play defence and rebound and got what we deserved.”