The Ballarat Miners will have to turn around its recent form ahead of it's blockbuster clash against the Kilsyth Cobras in the first game of the NBL1 finals.
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The Cobras will come into the contest in red hot form, registering a strong 94-86 over Dandenong thanks in part to a massive performance by Melbourne United forward Tohi Smith-Milner (28 points and nine rebounds).
The Miners will not have the same luxury after losing back-to-back games for the first time this season, going down at home to the Melbourne Tigers 86-78.
The Tigers jumped on the Miners early, opening up a 16-6 lead mid-way through the first quarter as they forced turnovers and pushed the pace on offence.
Ballarat defensive anchor Deng Acouth had his hands full down low guarding Melbourne captain Dane Pineau, picking up two early fouls as the Tigers extended its lead to 13 points to close the quarter.
The Miners struggled to deal with the Tigers inside-out attack as Melbourne continued to pull further ahead, leading by as many as 18 points.
It seemed as though each time the Miners would make a run, Melbourne had an answer. Ballarat closed the gap to as close as ten points in the second quarter before the Tigers pushed it back out to a 14-point deficit to close the first half.
The Miners found some success in the third quarter as Marqueze Coleman continued to score from all over the court in his return after three weeks on the sidelines. Coleman led all scorers with 24 points.
Ballarat got into a rhythm in the third term, reducing the deficit to seven points before the Tigers once again answered through Pineau and its outside shooting, putting the Miners into a 13-point whole entering the final quarter of action.
The fourth quarter mirrored the third as Melbourne consistently found an answer to whatever the Miners threw its way, leading to a deflating end of the regular season for Ballarat.
After the game Short told The Courier the Miners performance was well short of what they are capable of.
(We allowed) far too many offensive rebounds, far too many open three-pointers, it just wasn't good enough on our part.
- Miners guard Sam Short
"We came out with no energy at all and it's unacceptable," he said.
"Even though we've secured top spot we need to play out these wins and prepare for the playoffs. Every time we got close we had a lack of concentration on the defensive end and gave up easy points."
Having now lost two consecutive games going into finals, Short said it is pivotal for Ballarat to learn from what went wrong at the weekend and improve on it going forward.
"We've got to learn from it... any game we play we've got to learn from what happens. We have to be proud of the fact that we finished on top, it's been a long time since Ballarat has done that but next week it's basically the start of a new season."
DETAILS
FINAL SCORE
BALLARAT MINERS: 14, 24, 17, 23 (78)
MELBOURNE TIGERS: 27, 25, 16, 18 (86)
SCORERS: Miners - Coleman 24 (3 three-pointers), Short 18 (3), Evans Jr 12 (2), Lingard 10, Dunmore 8 (1), Acuoth 6. Tigers - Pineau 18, Pozoglou 18 (2), Luxford 13 (3), Wells 13 (2), Hickey 9 (1), Purchase 7 (1), Vitala 7 (1), Bines 1.
STATS
REBOUNDS - Miners 38, Tigers 51
ASSISTS - Miners 15, Tigers 19
STEALS - Miners 6, Tigers 7
BLOCKS - Miners 3, Tigers 1
TURNOVERS - Miners 10, Tigers 7
FOULS - Miners 20, Tigers 14
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