By ADEM SARICAOGLU
CLOSE enough was not good enough yet again for the Altona Gators against the Whittlesea Pacers in Men’s Division 1 Big V basketball on Saturday night.
Needing a win to stay in touch with the top four in the division’s Terrill Pool, Altona took to home court hoping for a good showing against one of the better teams of Division 1.
However by quarter time the tone had been set, and Altona was forced to play catch-up basketball for the rest of the game.
The score read 17-8 in Whittlesea’s favour after one quarter of play but the Gators didn’t get flustered, piling on 25 points to Whittlesea’s 20 in response to get within four points by the main break.
It was a fight back that quickly re-established the tone of the game, and the second half played out very similar to the second quarter, where offence came to the fore.
It was an end-to-end shootout for much of the second half but with neither team managing to dominate for any significant portion, Whittlesea ended up holding on by the final buzzer and escaped with a six-point win, 82-76.
Altona’s Joey Mausar, a solid contributor for the Gators all year, was at his brilliant best on Saturday with 30 points from his 36 minutes on the court.
Shaun Phelan was also impressive with 20 points and five rebounds, but neither of those figures were enough to score Altona its eighth win of the year.
Earlier in the night Altona’s women again struggled in their clash with the Pacers, going down 41-74 to remain last in Division 1.
Whittlesea stormed out to a seven-point lead by quarter time, but it was a poor second term by the Gators that led to their doom on Saturday.
The Pacers won that quarter 23-6, before adding another 32 points to Altona’s 23 in the second half to end up 33-point winners on the night.
Despite her team’s loss Alysha Carden-David was the most prolific scorer on the court with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Ashley Patterson contributed 10 points and six rebounds of her own.
