Season 2019 is starting to become a cruel one for the Altona Gators in the Big V basketball men’s division 2.
It has played out like a broken record for the Gators, fronting up to games with the best laid out plans, giving it their best shot and being in the contest late on, only for most games to slip out of their grasp when the whips get cracking late in the fourth.
It has been happening week after week.
The reality is, the Gators are a genuine team unit, but don’t have the star power to rely on to hit a big basket in the clutch.
The Gators have a focus on promoting local players in favour of imports, which undoubtedly costs them games.
“I think we’re executing better than
most teams, but we’re just not putting a lid on it when it counts,” Gators coach Des Radoslovic said. “We’ve come up against some very talented players who have had some big finishes to games against us.”
Altona is on a five game losing streak.
The Gators, sitting second-last with a 4-11 record, led at half-time in four of those five games before running out of petrol in the second half.
Usually it is an opposition import that takes over in the second half of games and that was again the case in an 82-74 loss to RMIT Redbacks at the Altona Sports Centre on Sunday.
Redbacks star Stephen Coffey was kept in check for the first half, but exploded after half-time to score 27 points and take the game away from the Gators.
The Gators were without their premier big man James Till.
Till tore ligaments in his ankle recently and is set for a long stint on the sidelines.
It has forced the Gators into adding minutes to the workloads of already stretched players and it hurt them dearly against the Redbacks.
“We’ve had a lot of injuries and a lot of banged up bodies this season, so there’s a lot of games down the stretch where fatigue really sets in,” Radoslovic said.
Jovan Bojanic will be crucial to Altona’s chances going forward.
Bojanic will take on an even bigger role in the paint in the absence of Till.
Mitchell Clissold will also be called upon to log big minutes.
Clissold played a season-high 35 minutes against RMIT.
Daniel Nichols has returned to form in recent weeks and dropped 12 points after hitting four threes against the Redbacks.
Altona Gators will return to the court on June 16 when it entertains bottom-of-the-ladder Mornington Breakers.
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