By ADEM SARICAOGLU
MELTON Thoroughbreds coach Grant Spencer remains concerned about his team becoming complacent with its form in Division 2 Big V basketball with play-offs just four weeks away.
The ladder-leading Thoroughbreds were at their brilliant best on Saturday night at home to Keilor, smashing the second-placed Thunder 96-61 to establish themselves as the clear favourite for the Division 2 title.
Melton has not lost since April and is currently on a 12-game winning streak, but Spencer is aware his team can’t afford to ease up on the gas pedal ahead of August’s playoffs.
“Complacency has always been an issue for me,” Spencer told Star.
“We’ve now won 12 in a row and we probably played our poorest game of the season last week against Maccabi but we were still able to come away with a pretty significant win (19 points), so hopefully the guys have got their bad game out of their system.”
The Thoroughbreds are near-certainties to remain on top of the ladder with a soft schedule now ahead of them in the lead-up to August, and Spencer said he will be keen to make the most of it.
“We’re probably lucky enough that we only have two games left,” Spencer said.
“We’ve got a bye in the last round and hopefully in the games we’ve got against Casey and Shepparton I can just keep them focused and make sure that we win those games and come away injury-free.
“And having that week off before the playoffs, I think, is not going to hurt us.
“It’ll give us the opportunity to freshen up and spend some time together and probably go down together as a group and watch the team we think we’ll probably end up playing in the first round, which will be a good opportunity for the guys.”
Melton led by just eight points at halftime on Saturday night but moved up another gear in the second half to destroy Keilor by game’s end.
Paul Ross led the way with 26 points for the Thoroughbreds while Cameron McCallum was also solid with 19 points and 13 rebounds.
“Everything clicked at the right time for us and the guys contributed from all over the floor,” Spencer said.
“We finally strung together four quarters of defence, and that turns pretty quickly into the way that we were able to operate on the offensive end and cause a lot of pressure to Keilor.
“Luckily for us we pretty much broke their back just after half time and effectively ran away with the game.”
