THE Albury-Wodonga Bandits earned a credible split of their SEABL Apple Isle road trip at the weekend in a pair of games that had vastly contrasting styles.
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A gritty, hard-nosed 62-55 win on Friday night over the Hobart Chargers was offset with a wretched second quarter against the North West Tasmania Thunder that resulted in an 86-78 defeat at Ulverstone the following evening.
Despite the setback, the Bandits moved to top spot in the SEABL’s East conference on percentage over Geelong, who suffered a 21-point home defeat to reigning champions Mount Gambier.
Coach Brad Chalmers said he was comfortable with a split of the road trip but admitted he would’ve liked the Bandits to have come home with a sweep for the first time since 2006.
“We’re getting there, we’re definitely improving as a unit,” Chalmers said.
“But there’s a long way to go for us. We’ve got to get better at moving and sharing the ball.
“There’s a lot of very talented offensive players on this team and we don’t have a pure, playmaking guard. But it was a good weekend for learning about making adjustments to different styles of play.
“It would’ve been nice to have a one-game cushion (on top of the ladder) but really, at 8-5 we’re only one game behind where I’d like to be.
“We’ll move on and prepare for next week’s game (against Kilsyth), it’s another big test for us.”
In a low-scoring affair on Friday, only imports Cory Dixon and Donte Nicholas, with 15 points apiece, cracked double-digits as both teams combined to miss 80 of the 125 shots they attempted.
An 18-11 second quarter ultimately proved the difference between the two teams, with Hobart lacking any real scoring punch to bridge even a small deficit.
It was the Bandits’ turn to suffer a second quarter malaise on Saturday night against the Thunder, the visitors scoring just nine points for the period as North West Tasmania raced to a 53-30 half-time lead.
And although Albury-Wodonga roared back in the second half — closing to within two points with less than five minutes remaining — the damage had been done.
The Bandits were led by smooth-shooting guard Daniel Sepokas, who nailed seven three pointers on his way to a game-high 31 points. Nicholas and Dixon were again prominent, with 19 and 16 points respectively, while Dixon grabbed 15 boards to rack up another double-double, his 12th in 13 games.
For the Thunder, new import Garrett Jackson poured in 30 points and hauled down 13 rebounds, while Nathan Wilson added 23 points.
“We got some good lessons from the weekend,” Chalmers said.
“One game was a certain style of play, the other was totally different.
“We were really solid defensively against Hobart, especially given the conditions, it was absolutely freezing in the stadium.
“Against North West Tassie, we started well, weathered the early storm and then when they shot well in the second quarter we were the complete opposite.
“But the pleasing part was we were able to fight back, couldn’t quite get over the line, maybe we’d spent too much coming back. Give them credit though, they shot the ball really well and we weren’t good enough defensively in the first half.”