ALTONA Gators were left confused after a 64-49 road loss to the Mildura Heat in the Big V women’s division 1 last Saturday night.
The Gators were up for the challenge defensively for the duration and matched the home side offensively for the most part.
But Randy Shanklin’s team would rue a sloppy third period, where they shot like there was a lid on the ring and carelessly turned the ball over in a fashion not evident at any other stage of the game.
“It was pretty tight till the third quarter where we fell apart,” he said. “We played well enough to win it, but we just couldn’t score in the third.
“We squandered a lot of easy opportunities and they capitalised on them at the other end. We took some ill-advised shots and made some unforced errors.”
The Gators were smashed 59 to 34 on the boards. Heat centre Samantha Zoch took a massive 23 rebounds to go with 13 points, while Crystal Whittington got 13 points and 13 rebounds.
Shanklin admitted his team was out-hustled, particularly in the second half. “They wanted the ball a bit more than we did.”
Leading contributors for the Gators were Ashley Patterson (11 points, four steals and three rebounds) and Jayne-Marie Sant (11 points and four rebounds).
Ashley Richardson locked down on the defensive end with five steals.
The Gators (1-4) will visit the Whittlesea Pacers (4-1) on Saturday night.
— Lance Jenkinson
