THE Albury-Wodonga Bandits suffered the first defeat of their SEABL campaign with an inconsistent performance costing them dearly in a 96-87 defeat to the Geelong Supercats.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In front of 950 fans, the Supercats’ win was built on the back of a strong first-half performance and a superior depth, with several key contributions coming off the bench.
Geelong led by as many as 13 points in the second quarter before taking a 10-point advantage into the half and then extending that to lead to 14 with ten minutes to play.
But unlike last weekend’s come-from-behind win over Nunawading, there would be no heroics from the Bandits, with only a late run ensuring the final margin was under double digits.
While hardly hitting the panic button, Bandits coach Brad Chalmers admitted the Border outfit was outplayed and also lamented his team’s terrible conversion rate at the free throw stripe, missing 17 of its 38 attempts.
“We didn’t play well,” Chalmers said.
“We weren’t sharp enough defensively, we created opportunities and then didn’t make our free throws.
“The main issue for me was our defensive intensity, we were just a fraction of a step slow.
“But full credit to Geelong, they hit tough shots and it was just one of those nights when we couldn’t get enough momentum to quell that.”
For the Supercats, swingman Kimmani Barrett led an even spread of scorers with 17, while the surprising Joel Smith and evergreen Ash Cannan both added 14 points as substitutes.
Albury-Wodonga was once again led by its US import combination of Cory Dixon and Donte Nicholas, with the former pouring in a game-high 32 points and his countryman adding 20 points despite battling foul trouble.
Guard Daniel Sepokas enjoyed his best performance for the Bandits to date with 19 points but both Deba George (seven points on 3-10 shooting) and Clay McMath (just two points) were well-held.
“In reality we were probably due, might be a bit of a wake-up call for us,” Chalmers said.
“We haven’t quite clicked as a unit yet.
“That will come at some point, we’re still finding our way and it’s early in the season, no-one’s getting too carried away either way.
“We’ll just go back to practice, fine-tune some things and keep chipping away.”
