BANDITS coach Brad Chalmers’ words after the game said it all.
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“We're not as good as we think we are,” he said.
In the first of three must-win games in the Bandits run home, and inspired Frankston outfit belied their standing on the SEABL ladder to give the home side a massive scare.
While the Bandits eventually prevailed 86-70, the lowly Blues capitalised on a Bandits outfit that was slow out of the blocks, driving hard through the paint and taking the fight to the ladder leaders.
The Bandits defence looked slow to react at times, with Frankston pair Matt Turner and Michael McInnes muscling their way to the hole a number of times.
It was all tied up at 34-all come half-time, with an anxious Chalmers needing more from his troops.
Despite carving out a nine-point lead at one point during the third quarter, the Blues came back to trail by just two leading into the final ten minutes.
Daniel Sepokas and Deba George lifted to start the fourth, with George nailing two long range shots to open up an eight-point lead two minutes in.
When Cory Dixon slammed one home with six minutes to go it looked like the Bandits train had finally gotten rolling, and it didn’t look like stopping.
The floodgates were open by the five-minute mark, with the Bandits displaying aggression and intensity not seen until the final ten minutes.
George lifted the Bandits all night, even in the dying minutes with a sensational steal to set up Donte Nicholas, who displayed some ripping form to finish with 19 points.
While scoring 16 points to the Blues’ two within the first five minutes of the final quarter was pleasing, ultimately Chalmers was left wanting more from his Bandits.
“We weren’t switched on,” Chalmers said.
“We know we’ve got the capability to score quickly the way we did in the last quarter, but it would have been nice to play like that for the full 40 minutes.
“It was a pretty ugly game, and it’s a wake-up call leading into the next few weeks.”
Coming up against the Blues should have been an opportunity to get minutes into the likes of Josh McKay, Alex Bogart-King and Jesse Wilson, but instead Chalmers was forced to pull out all the stops to get the win.
“It was a frustrating game,” Chalmers said.
“We had an opportunity to give guys like Wilson and Josh McKay a bit of reward for effort, and had it been the kind of margin we finished with we would have had a chance to try a few things.
“It was a disappointing game and the boys will feel that way as well.
“We've got to be better next week, our defence was soft in the first half.
“It's a big reality check, we know have have to keep working, and we have lots of work to do to compete against the better sides in the competition.”
The Bandits face another struggling side when they host Sandringham next week, before a clash with Southern conference leaders Mt Gambier in a fortnight.