By ADEM SARICAOGLU
MELTON tasted victory for the first time back in Division One Big V basketball after beating Warrnambool in front of a home crowd on Saturday night.
The Thoroughbreds got out of the gate in style to establish a 10-point lead by the first change.
However, a second-quarter lapse brought the Seahawks back into the contest and by half-time Melton’s lead had been whittled down to a single point.
Coming off a nine-point loss to the Sunbury Jets seven days earlier, the Thoroughbreds stormed home in the second half and outscored Warrnambool 28-19 in the final term to collect their first win under the guidance of new coach Mick Downie.
Senior assistant coach Julie McCallum told Star she was pleased to see Melton lift its tempo after a sluggish start to the season against the Jets.
“It’s always good to get your first win, especially for the new boys on the team,” McCallum said.
“We adjusted much better than we did the previous week, so we came out and got through our stuff and we played with a lot more intensity than I think we did the week before.
“It was lacking in the first quarter in game one and you can’t give a Division One team a 20-point head start and expect to come back.”
Cameron McCallum was the top-scorer on the floor with 28 points and 14 rebounds for the night, while Jeff Crowe (23 points) and Matthew Jukes also drew praise from McCallum.
Melton’s first road trip of the season will be to Mildura this Saturday before a tough stretch of games that will pit the Thoroughbreds against Southern Peninsula, Altona, Craigieburn and Warrandyte.
The games against Altona, Craigieburn and Warrandyte will all be at home.
McCallum said the focus for the coming month will be to produce a solid four-quarter effort that has so far eluded Melton to date.
“We’ve got to stick to what works for us,” she said.
“We go really deep but we’ve got to play for 40 minutes – and even against Warrnambool we dropped off for five minutes and gave away a 15-point-lead and let them come back.”
Melton sits second in Division One’s Terrill Division after two rounds.
