|
Memo to the rest of the SEABL: Geelong is back to its ruthless ways.
The Supercats 113-88 point hammering of Ballarat on Saturday night at The Arena the third straight victory by more than 15 points.
At the same time the trashing of the enemy extended the club’s winning streak to six in cult guard Jamie Medved’s 150th game for the club.
However coach Mark Leader can still see some improvement in his roster as they head into this week’s clash with another archrival, Frankston.
“I think there were still times in the game we lost our way a little bit,” Leader said.
“But defensively when we had to we got big stops and really turned up the heat on them.”
Geelong opened up an eight point lead at the first break, and despite getting back to within 6 points early in the third quarter on the back of consecutive three-pointers from impressive import Rishawn Norwood (33 points), the bottom team in the East Conference never really threatened.
Ballarat’s cause wasn’t helped by an unsportsmanlike foul and a technical foul within seconds of each other against Zac Carter late in the third quarter which seemed to deflate the Miners.
Clifton Lee produced his best performance in a Supercats singlet with 33 points, including a flawless 5-of-5 from three-point land.
Meanwhile Isma’il Muhammad continued his run of fine form with 25, including some thunderous dunks which had the almost capacity crowd rocking.
“We knew it would take about this long for them to settle in and for us to understand what they’re about,” Leader said of his imports.
“We’re starting to run some of our structure to get them the ball in the right players.
“It does help to have Nathan Herbert back in the line-up- it just frees everything up for us.”
However Leader reserved much of his praise for centre Daniel George (15 points, 13 rebounds, 5 blocks), who curbed the influence of former Supercats import Jamal Brown (13 points, 4 rebounds)
“We scout him (Brown) very well, because we know his moves,” Leader said.
“Dan knows what he’s going to go a lot of times before he does it because of that scouting.
“(Also) it was nice just to see Dan hitting shots tonight and stepping up and playing some really good basketball.”
The playing group has now turned their focus to Frankston, however coach Leader admits he’s been viewing game tape of the Blues for the past week.
“We’ve been waiting for that game, and we know it’s going to be tough at Frankston,” Leader said.
“It’s going to be really good test for us and one that we’re looking forward to.”
|