By Stuart Teather
KEILOR’S season is over after going down in a thrilling Division Two semi-final series to the Horsham Hornets on the weekend.
The Thunder had the advantage heading into the final two games of the best-of-three series on Saturday and Sunday, having smashed the Hornets the previous week.
But Horsham, on its home court, was too strong for the Thunder, knocking the side off 98-90 on Saturday, and 107-103 on Sunday.
The result capped off a tumultuous year for the Thunder, with one of the side’s rising stars, Phil Vrkic, passing away earlier in the season.
Coach Peter Jukes said he was proud the way his players fought on.
“All the trouble we had this year with the death of one of our young guys, I was really pleased with the effort the guys put in,” Jukes said.
“The guys really shone on the weekend and did us really proud,” he said.
It was not the fairytale finish the side wanted, but there was plenty of drama in both games on the weekend, with the Hornets jumping out to an early lead and Keilor playing catch-up basketball all game.
Both times the Thunder got within a sniff of victory, the raucous home crowd lifted the Hornets to victory.
Jukes said the supporters played a big part in the result.
“I think the crowd got them up in the end, a bit of a home-court advantage,” he said.
“We just couldn’t stop them from scoring, with the home court advantage they were confident in their rings.”
In the Saturday game, Matthew Jukes (18 points) and Andrew Freeman (17) did the damage for the Thunder, while on Sunday Jacob Bevanda (25) and Liam Glascott (16) led the way.
But the likes of Timothy Pickert (38) and Shaun Bryce (28) for the Hornets were too sharp for the Thunder.
Horsham will face off with the undefeated Melbourne University in the grand final, after the minor premiers knocked off Blackburn in two games in their semi-final series.
