League honours Pioneers

CONSISTENT PERFORMER: Pioneers captain Tom Daly completed another consistent year with the club, award with inclusion in the All SEABL second team at the end-of-season awards.
CONSISTENT PERFORMER: Pioneers captain Tom Daly completed another consistent year with the club, award with inclusion in the All SEABL second team at the end-of-season awards.

WITH the South East Australian Basketball League minor rounds done and dusted, the Mount Gambier Pioneers were rewarded for their stellar effort, with two players in the top 10 at the end-of-season awards in Melbourne, along with coach-of-the-year.

American import player Daniel Alexander was named in the All-SEABL first team, while captain Tom Daly was named in the All-SEABL second team.

Coach Richard Hill was awarded coach-of-the-year after his side’s stellar season, where the Pioneers finished the minor rounds with a 21/3 win/loss ratio and can now aim to compete in their fifth straight national championship hit out.

Hill said the players’ awards were deserved for the team, after such a strong home-and-away season.

“We deserved to get two players in the top 10 because we had such a good year,” he said.

“Daniel was also third in the MVP voting – he had a pretty good season.

“He clearly polled more votes than anyone else for us, so it was good for him, good for Tom and good for the group.”

Alexander played all 24 games and finished the minor rounds with an impressive 19.1 points-per-game, 9.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists.

He shot at 82pc from the free-throw line, 56.4 from the field and 46.7 from three-point territory.

Daly was his usual best from the point guard position in his first season as captain, averaging 16.1 points, 3.2 rebounds and 4.6 assists.

He averaged 81pc from the charity stripe, 56.3 from the field and 36.5 from beyond the three-point arc.

As for the coach’s award, Hill said that came from the playing group as a whole.

“That is a reflection of how good your team is really,” he said.

“I won it a couple of years ago, but at the end of the day we can only measure those things in the ultimate success of the team.

“Clearly our team has performed across the season better than anyone else.

“The guy who is coaching gets some accolades and that’s nice, but really it is a reflection of the hard work the team puts in.”

However, throughout the season there were many situations where Hill called a time out to discuss tactics, with the team working hard to compete or facing a deficit, which ultimately achieved success.

But he said that was also a by-product of the club as it currently sits.

“I have been there for long enough now, we all have good relationships and we all trust each other,” he said.

“In any team, if the players trust each other, the coach trusts the team and the team trusts the coach, if you can have that, you can usually get yourself out of some tight corners.”