Tara Murray
Altona Gators played well, but not well enough to come away with a win in the Big V women’s division 2 semi final on Saturday night.
With a grand final spot on the line, the Gators pushed the Mornington Breakers all the way, falling short 55-48.
Gators coach Cameron Wilkosz said they were beaten by a very good side.
“Mornington came out and did what they did best,” he said. “We did what we could do but it wasn’t enough in the end.
“For the first half we were handing in essentially. Mornington are a tough side and on their day are really hard to beat.”
Wilkosz said they came into the game with a game plan with four key focuses. He said they stuck to them for the most part.
“At the start of the game we had a game plan, with four things on the board,” he said.
“We have a chance of winning the game. We had to win at least three of the four of them. We were able to get three of the four, but we were still a bit short.
“We didn’t have our best game, the final score shows seven points, but we didn’t play our best.”
The Gators won the last quarter 17-11 which will give them some confidence.
Their hopes of coming from behind to get the win were dented with captain Jessica Rarity and leading scorer Sharna Appleby both fouled out.
Wilkosz said they know they are a much better team with both of those players on the court.
Appleby top scored on Saturday night with 15 points, the only Gators player to hit double figures.
Wilkosz said if they were to make it through to the grand final series against the Breakers, they were confident that they could beat them.
Before then, the Gators face the RMIT Redbacks in a preliminary final this weekend. The winner of the game goes through to a best-of-three grand final series.
The two teams met in the first week of the finals, with the Gators winning 80-53 on that occasion.
Wilkosz said they were hoping to play like that again this weekend.
“We’ve beaten them three from three this season,” he said. “We got in with confidence, but not arrogance.
“There’s a distinct difference and hopefully we can beat them for a fourth time.”
