By ADEM SARICAOGLU
DES Radoslovic’s debut as coach of the Altona Gators started well on Sunday with a six-point come-from-behind road win over Camberwell in Division One Men’s Big V Basketball.
The Gators battled in the first half and trailed by double figures before managing to turn their fortunes around in the second, outscoring the Dragons 41-30 after the main break to start their 2014 campaign on a positive note.
A Radoslovic rev-up seemed to spark Altona into action as the bigger and stronger Dragons asserted their dominance early in the game.
“We were missing five players so we went in very undersized,” Radoslovic said.
“They had a couple of really massive big guys on their team so we were giving up many offensive rebounds and they were getting many second chance points.
“That gave them the early lead so we made some adjustments to our defence and just tried to neutralise their advantage there and tried to run the ball back the other way and get the game back in our tempo. And it worked.”
Altona was missing both co-captains and point guards Daniel Ellul and Daniel Martin on Sunday but the experience of playmaker Joey Mausar proved invaluable.
Mausar scored 20 points with six rebounds, while Milos Trkulja was effective at both ends of the court, collecting 13 points and 11 defensive rebounds.
“We’re an undersized, athletic team, so we need to play to our strengths,” Radoslovic said.
“At the start of the match it really came down to them having the ability to utilise their bigger, slower, more experienced team, whereas we managed to press a lot and trap a lot. We forced some good turnovers and then got some easy baskets for ourselves and it really turned the game.”
Altona will host Mildura this Sunday afternoon before embarking on a daunting five-week stretch of road games that will take the Gators to Warrnambool, Melton, Geelong, Mildura and Sunbury.
Given Radoslovic is keen to get his Gators back into the finals later this year, he said he was relieved to start the season with a ‘W’.
“To come into the game that undermanned and on the road and do whatever we could to get that win – it was a really good way to grind it out, and very relieving,” he said.
