Craigieburn may be on top of the ladder leading into the Big V basketball division 2 finals, but their coach feels there’s a big improvement to come.
Coach Dennis McNamara said the Eagles were not resting on their laurels, having lost only one game for the season.
“We want to maintain the top position and get home court advantage for the finals,” he said.
“I’m after improvement and I think we have another 30-40 per cent in us. If we stay the same then the other teams will catch us.”
He pointed out captain Liam Watts as one player who continues to impress.
“Liam is only 21 and he’s getting better and better and will only continue to improve,” McNamara said.
“And we have 10 players who can step up and do a job … our bench players have performed well when our starters haven’t.”
On Saturday night, the Eagles beat Coburg 77-59 to avenge an early-season loss.
“It was a good win once we controlled what we were doing,” McNamara said.
“We made a slow start and the opposition started well. They had one player, Jordan Harding, who started really well and once we got control of him we controlled the game.”
Charles Parker was the man who stopped Harding.
“He [Harding] had 12-15 points in the first quarter and we tried different players on him until we found someone who could [stop him],” McNamara said.
“Parker did what our starters couldn’t do. He wasn’t our first choice, but he was terrific.”
There was one negative from the game, with Mark Welch suffering a possible season ending injury.
“He hurt his groin in the warm-up and with an injury like that you normally miss eight to 10 weeks,” McNamara said. “It could be season-ending and it’s just terrible for him.”
The Eagles’ women’s side lost 78-57 to Keilor in division 1, Jessica Boyd top-scoring for the losers with 14 points.
It was a special night for the club as they wore specially made tops to help raise funds for CanTeen. There was raffles, auctions and merchandise on sale to raise money for the charity, which supports young people and their families dealing with cancer.
