By Lachlan Onions
THE Portland Coasters were no match for the Millicent Magic women on Saturday in Round 5 of the Country Basketball League season.
The Magic recorded a huge 106-61 point victory to put the rest of the league on notice in just their first outing of the season.
A 26-11 opening term suggested it would be a long night for the Coasters, despite the home-court advantage.
However, despite the statement that was sent by the Magic in the first quarter, Magic coach Damien Venn said his side were “scratchy” to begin with.
“We were a few player short due to state trials, so we only went over there with six players,” he said
“The girls started off a bit scratchy – which you would expect first game – and then after that they were pretty good.”
From there the large margins continued, with Millicent claiming the second term by 11 points and the Magic began to gel together in their first hit-out of the campaign.
“Those girls have all played a bit of basketball together so it did not take them long (to gel),” Venn said.
It was the third quarter which hurt Portland the most, as the Magic put on 35 points to the Coasters’ 22 to snuff out any chance of a come-back from the home side.
A more subdued final term saw the Magic relax somewhat with the contest already in hand, but they still outscored the Coasters to the tune of five points.
“I reckon we ran out of legs probably in the last quarter but when you’ve only got six players, you’ve got to expect that,” Venn said.
He also said it is hard to keep the foot on the pedal when leading by upwards of 30 points.
Emily Winter was impressive, with 34 points to her name, while Jasmin Howe added a solid 29, with four three-point bombs to keep the Coasters defence on their toes.
Georgia Winter joined her sister with 17 points, while Alana Berkefeld (formerly Winter) managed 11.
“It was a pretty good team effort, obviously Jasmin and Emily were both the most dominant on the offensive end,” Venn said.
“Emily Winter was solid on the defensive end.”
The Magic’s experience came in handy as the Coasters fielded a young side.
“The core of this team hasn’t changed much,” Venn said.
“We didn’t play last year, then you had two years of Covid, then you go two years before that and they won it back-to-back and the core of this team is the same as those teams three, four years ago.”
