ALTONA Gators displayed yo-yo form in their Big V basketball men’s division 1 double-header weekend.
On Saturday night, the Gators were taken to the cleaners in an 86-56 road loss to the Chelsea Gulls, the Watson conference leaders.
Only hours later, the Gators were back in the comfortable surroundings of their home court taking on fellow Terril conference team Craigieburn Eagles. The Gators cruised to a 64-51 win.
“For us to turn that around, bounce back and get a good win over a good team was important,’’ Gators coach Randy Shanklin said.
“No matter where they are sitting on the ladder, they beat us first game of the season.
“So for us to come out and turnaround what we did last night was a big effort.”
The Gators led the Eagles by a commanding 28 points at one stage, but let the visitors gain some respectability on the scoreboard in the last period.
In the Big V, percentage is one of the formulas used to split teams on the ladder, and the Gators cost themselves a large chunk of it by taking their foot off the pedal late in the game.
“Unfortunately, we lost by 30 last night and we had a 28-point lead today, so we could’ve got those points back for percentage,’’ Shanklin said.
“We gave up the opportunity to get points back, so that was disappointing.”
The Gators were still satisfied to earn a split from their tough double-header.
They did it without star Shaun Phelan having a major impact offensively.
Phelan scored just six points, but his work on the defensive end more than made up for his lack of scoring.
“He kept plugging away and did what he had to do on defence and changed a lot of shots,” Shanklin said.
It was unheralded guard Matthew Jon who sparked the Gators in the second and third quarters.
Jon finished with 18 points and nine rebounds to be a shot in the arm for the Gators’ offence after it had stalled out of the blocks in the first period.
“We were struggling to score, we put him in and he actually started our run in the second quarter,’’ Shanklin said.
The key to the Gators’ win was their team D.
The Gators put up a brick wall defence and the Eagles found it nigh on impenetrable in the crucial moments.
“It was really a team effort,’’ Shanklin said.
“We pride ourselves on one of their guys having to play on five of our guys.”
The Gators head into the Queen’s Birthday break sitting fourth in the Terril conference with a 6-8 record.
