Ballarat Miners have maintained second spot on the south conference ladder despite a 10-point loss to a strong Nunawading Spectres outfit in the South East Australian Basketball League on Saturday.
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Nunawading on home court was always going to be a challenge for the Ballarat GMHBA Miners, having won eight of its nine games and sitting on top of the east conference ladder.
But the Miners worked hard throughout the match to keep themselves within reach.
Davon Usher (11 points and 11 rebounds), Martin King-Davis (12 points and 10 rebounds), and Craig Moller (13 points and 10 rebounds) made double doubles, while Peter Hooley had an impact with 18 points.
Coach Eric Hayes said a lot of positives could be taken out of the “solid” effort, both defensively and offensively.
The Miners just did not do enough to secure the win and not all of the responsibility fell on the players.
“From a coaching point of view… some decisions I could have made might have had a little bit of an impact,” Hayes said.
“One of (Nunawading’s) players really stepped up and hit some really big baskets at some crucial times, so we probably didn’t make enough adjustments to counter that.”
But Hayes was pleased with other defensive aspects of the game.
“We did a really good job of limiting the opportunities of their main scorer so that he wasn’t as effective as he has been in other games,” Hayes said.
Offensively, Hayes said the players shot well with King-Davis focusing on rebounds, Hooley creating opportunities for his teammates and Ashley Constable having his best shooting game.
“We had some really nice team play when the ball moved around and then we found the right guy at the right time,” Hayes said.
