By ADEM SARICAOGLU
MELTON coach Grant Spencer was still “in a little bit of shock” on Sunday after his Thoroughbreds scraped home to beat Keilor in game one of the Big V Division Two grand final series on Saturday night.
In a very dour and low-scoring affair at Keilor Basketball Stadium, Melton was forced to come from behind to beat the Thunder by eight points after trailing at every change.
With a stunning 16-3 final term, the Thoroughbreds romped to their 17th successive win to get themselves into the box seat to take out the title this weekend back at home court.
“Keilor came out in a zone straight away, played zone all day and we didn’t shoot very well for pretty much the whole game – it was just a grind,” Spencer said.
“(It was) good to get a win but it’s back to the drawing board for next week. They’re probably going to come out and play zone against us again so we’re going to have to make some adjustments during the week and hopefully we can get another win.”
Melton’s 54-point showing was by far its least potent of the season to date.
Spencer believes his side never adjusted to Keilor’s tactics throughout the night, instead crediting Melton’s dominant final term with strong defence.
“We’ve had teams throw zone at us all year because they don’t have the ability to defend us man to man,” Spencer said.
“But we just didn’t shoot the ball very well, lost a little bit of energy and in the end just ground out a win.
“We got a couple of lucky shots and went to the foul line and made a few foul shots and just created a little bit of scoreboard pressure, got it back to five, then down to three, down to one and then took the lead with about five minutes to go.
“From there on it was just a tussle, shot for shot, rebound for rebound – so we were just lucky enough to come away with a win.“We could’ve easily lost it, it was that type of game.”
The Thoroughbreds’ ability to win a game largely controlled by Keilor means the squad’s confidence levels are still very high going into the deciding weekend at Melton Indoor Recreation Centre.
“It’ll just give us confidence,” Spencer said of the home court advantage.
“Had we lost the first one it would have been tough to go home and win two in a row, but I think we’ll make some adjustments during the week and the guys will be confident enough in their ability to be able to grind it out and get a win.”
