ANOTHER blowout loss at home has left Albury-Wodonga Bandits coach Brad Chalmers searching for answers as his team risks falling out of the finals picture.
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In a disappointing outing considering the occasion, the Allen McCowan Memorial game, the Bandits surrendered to the Sandringham Sabres, 120-93.
The visitors shot the lights out from three – their 16 triples coming at a phenomenal 61 per cent clip thanks to a series of defensive miscues in the first half.
With starters Deba George and Rashad Hassan encountering foul trouble early in the second quarter, Chalmers was forced to pull the pair and turn to his bench to find a spark.
While the likes of Chris Thompson and newcomer Derrick Scott played their best games for the season and were able to stop the bleeding, the second unit lacked the firepower to bring the Bandits back into the game.
Chalmers rolled the dice in the last two minutes before half-time, bringing George and Hassan back in to find some momentum.
The move paid off, with George capitalising off a Tevin Jackson block and rebound to hit a buzzer-beating three point shot heading into the half.
Expectations were high coming out of the main break, but another foul against Hassan on the first possession of the second half set the tone.
It lies with the starters and it lies with me that we’ve got to work that out, to get that starting group playing a little better.
- Brad Chalmers
The Sabres outscored the Bandits by 10 points in the third, and by that point the game was all but over.
A half-hearted rally in the fourth was cold comfort, as the Bandits dropped to 4-8 for the season.
Chalmers said it was incumbent on his starters to get it together on the defensive end.
“It’s a positive thing for me that we had three or four guys coming off the bench that executed a role,” Chalmers said.
“If they were just able come into a game that was even, where the starters were doing their job and giving us a chance, things would be different.
“Putting them in tonight and we’re down 16, 18 points we can’t ask them to bring that back, it’s not their job to do that, it’s their job to rest the starters.
“It lies with the starters and it lies with me that we’ve got to work that out, to get that starting group playing a little better.”
The Bandits weren’t helped by a quad strain keeping shooting guard Daniel Sepokas out, but Sawyer Dearborn returned for his first game of the year.
Despite the foul trouble, Hassan dominated in limited minutes, posting 31 points in 17 shots, while Tevin Jackson’s 12 points, seven boards and eight assists stood out among the starters.
Using the bye next weekend to re-calibrate will be crucial for the Bandits, who now need to go on a big run in the second half of the season to be any chance whatsoever of making the top eight.
