MOUNT Gambier’s Pioneers have slipped further down the South East Australian Basketball League ladder after a tough week which saw two losses in Tasmania.
The Round 7 games saw the Pioneers face Hobart Chargers on Friday night, resulting in a two-point loss to kick proceedings off, with a high-scoring 108-106 final score.
From there the Pioneers backed up on Saturday, with a 10-point loss to North West Tasmania Thunder, going down 87-77 in a tough defensive stoush.
The weekend was another blow to the club, which is struggling to find healthy players to take to the floor and now sits in 12th place.
Friday night’s clash saw a determined Pioneers take the game up to the fourth-placed Chargers.
Much of the Pioneers 19 first-quarter points came from the returning Tim Coenraad, who again put his hand up to help the side out, finishing the term with 13 points.
Lewis Thomas contributed the remaining six points.
The second term saw the Pioneers take the lead, despite an early flurry from the Chargers.
Kane de Wit hit a three mid-way through the term, followed by the same from Erik Burdon to tie the game up.
Kyle Tipene also found a triple to put the visitors out by three late in the term, with the one-point margin at the long break setting up an exciting final half.
The third term played out much the same, with the Pioneers out to a six-point lead early on the back of a Coenraad triple and a Tipene two.
The Chargers regained the lead mid-way through the term, but the continued fight from Burdon, de Wit and Thomas saw a two-point advantage to the visitors at the final break.
The Chargers turned the deficit around and lead by seven in the opening minutes of the final stanza, but once more the Pioneers showed grit and fought back, regaining the lead and holding off a determined home side.
Again the home side hit back, but Burdon went to the free throw line for three shots, successful with all to tie the game up with just a minute remaining.
Unfortunately even a late two from Thomas was not enough to close the final margin, with the Chargers claiming a hard-fought victory.
Coenraad topped the score sheets with 39 points, while Thomas contributed 25.
Burdon (15) and Jamieson (14) also reached double figures.
Saturday night saw the Thunder off to a lightning start to put the Pioneers on the back foot, leading by 12 at the first break after a scintillating 26-point opening term.
Unfortunately the Pioneers were always playing catch up.
However, an impressive final quarter, which saw the visitors bang on 27 points to the home side’s 18, threatened to turn the tide, with the margin back to just four points with a minute remaining in the contest.
However, the home side then managed three more two-point plays to ice the game.
Again it was Coenraad and Thomas who led the scoring for the Pioneers, with 21 and 20 points respectively.
Thomas added a double-double, pulling down 14 rebounds, while Coenraad missed by just one, with nine rebounds.
Burdon popped up with another double-figure result with 17 points.
For coach Richard Hill it was a disappointing weekend, with two games so close, yet so far away.
“Against Hobart, from my perspective given the circumstances, I do not recall ever playing a better game on the road,” he said.
“We scored 106 points with a limited number of players.
“Kane hurt his ankle in the first quarter which made it hard.
“We played great – Tim had a great first half then everyone jumped in.
“We shot the ball great and played as well as I can ever remember.”
Hill said after being so close, it was disappointing for the players, who threw everything at the game with the depleted roster.
“I thought our guys deserved to win,” he said.
“We had Tim who played 40 minutes – he did not come out of the game.
“Plus we were not able to use Kane as much as we liked because of his ankle.”
Considering the final term on Saturday night, Hill said it was another disappointing result for the players.
“We could not make a shot early, but it was a different game,” he said.
“They defended really well and we had a couple of patches where we could have fallen by the wayside, but we kept hanging in there.
“We were 23 down with seven minutes to go and got it back to four.
“We felt we could steal it because we were on fire.
“We made an error in defence and they ended up scoring and it was game over.
“But for a bunch of guys who hardly had a rest for the weekend, we showed some real character.”
Despite the current position, Hill still holds hopes of a playoff position.
“Our goal will make the playoffs, although the top end of the playoffs is probably out of the question now,” Hill said.
“If we can go to the June long weekend break with two more wins and be at five and five, then there are nine games left, so if we could win six of those nine, I’m pretty confident that will get us into the playoffs.
“We are capable of that if we play well.”
