A depleted team sheet forced Altona Gators away from their normal up-tempo playing style against Camberwell Dragons on Sunday.
A host of key absentees, including co-captains Dan Ellul and Daniel Martin, would be a concern but not a tipping point.
Even when the deficit blew out to as many as 15 points midway through the second quarter, it couldn’t break the Gators’ spirit.
The Gators produced a stirring backs-to-the-wall 77-71 win – but it did take a jolt from first-game coach Des Radoslovic to kick-start them just before half-time.
“I called a time-out and nearly burst a blood vessel in my head yelling at them,” he said. “We turned it around and really changed the energy after that.
“Coming in that undermanned, missing your co-captains and point guards, and a few things going wrong with injuries in the last week, it was a really big effort to get the win.”
A 17-7 scoring run kept the Gators in touch and they went into half-time trailing by just five.
The deficit was back out to 11 by the mid-point of the third and it was starting to look like it might not be the Gators’ day. Again, they went on a run; this time a 21-6 effort broke the Dragons’ resolve.
The Gators spent much of the second half trying to negate Dragons’ man mountain Simon Hughes, who finished with 22 points and 22 rebounds. Hughes was massive in helping the Dragons build their lead, but his contribution was limited down the stretch when the Gators changed their zone defence.
“He’s a six-foot-11 monster and we don’t have any of those,” Radoslovic said.
“We adjusted the positioning of the zone a little bit and a few of the players’ responsibilities in the zone and the players responded.
“He was almost a non-factor in the second half, which is a good job by the boys.”
Milos Trkulja was deployed to play a close-checking role on Hughes in the paint.
Giving up height and weight, Trkulja not only kept Hughes’ impact to a more manageable level, he got 13 points and 15 rebounds of his own.
“He [Trkulja] had the assignment of pinning him down and nullifying his offensive boards and did a really good job,” Radoslovic said.
Joey Mausar’s impact at the point cannot be understated. With the regular starting and back-up point guards unavailable, Mausar was forced to step out of his comfort zone and run the game. He did it efficiently with just two turnovers in 37 minutes, to go with 20 points, six rebounds and six assists.
“He normally plays the shooting guard for us and is a talented shooter,” Radoslovic said. “He did well to fill that void.
“We’ve got 13 players on our roster and were down to eight today with a couple of youth league guys filling in.
“We were undermanned and a number of guys playing out of position responded really well.”
The Gators will play their home opener against Mildura Heat at the Altona Sports Centre on Sunday. Fans should savour the experience because it will be a long time before they are back at the Swamp.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw that eight of our first nine [games] were on the road,” Radoslovic said.
