By ADEM SARICAOGLU
THE Werribee Devils had to recover from yet another poor start in Women’s Division Two Big V basketball at home on Saturday, but still got the win over the Casey Cavaliers.
Their poor starts have become a common theme so far this season, causing much concern for coach Lloyd Klaman once more over the weekend.
“We’ve tried shaking up the starting line-up,” Klaman said. “We keep mixing it up, it just seems like we don’t shoot well.
“Really, I just want to go out and have a half-hour of training before we start just to get us moving, but we’ll keep testing different things.”
The silver lining is the Devils have become accustomed to recovering from their sluggish starts, and again produced a solid response after quarter time to get within a point by the main break.
Offence then came to the fore for both teams in third quarter as 48 points were scored combined, but the Cavaliers still managed stay a step ahead and led by three points at the final change.
As per usual, Werribee saved its best for last, outscoring Casey 24-16 in the final term to come away with a 76-71 win which will secure the Devils second spot for at least the next month.
Klaman was happy with Werribee’s spread of contributors on the night.
“It wasn’t just the ‘Lisa (Troyahn) Show’ again, we had four people in double figures so it was a pretty high-scoring game for us,” he said.
“Elisha Burnette (17 points, six rebounds) had a really good game – she did a lot of little things.
“Lisa (Troyahn) was her usual self. She had 15 points and 10 boards and Georgia Perry had 10 points.”
The coach was also impressed with the last-ditch efforts of Olivia Klaman.
“About four minutes into the fourth quarter we were down by about three and we got a spark from Olivier Klaman,” he said.
“She came in and hit three three-pointers in two minutes that really sparked us and gave us a bit of a cushion, and we were able to carry that for the rest of the game.”
All Big V clubs will enjoy this weekend off with seven rounds of action still to come before finals kick off in August.
With Werribee well on track for August action, Klaman insists there is still much room for improvement despite the Devils’ blistering start.
“We’re not blowing teams out, it’s just that we’re playing good in the last two or three minutes to close teams out,” Klaman said.
“But the odds are the basketball gods are going to get you eventually, so we’ve got to work on putting teams away early.
“That’s our big goal, to have a bit more of a killer instinct.”
