Tara Murray
Craigieburn Eagles are the kings of the Big V men’s division 2 competition, claiming the championship on Saturday night.
The best team all season, the Eagles capped off a massive turnaround this season as they accounted for Surf Coast.
The Eagles finished second bottom last season with just three wins, the same as the bottom side.
A new coach and some key additions helped spark the Eagles, who claimed the minor premiership this year.
After winning through to the grand final, the Eagles had a week off before the grand final with the Chargers.
On Saturday night, the Eagles had to overcome a first half deficit to claim the championship, winning, 80-71.
Eagles coach Tim Annett said it was a pretty unreal feeling.
“It was a pretty nervy game for three quarters, but we managed to pull the win out,” he said.
“We probably thought with the tempo of the way the game was being played that we would probably be able to outrun them late.
“Credit to our guys who stood up in the last five minutes and got it done.”
In the first half, the Chargers seemed to have all the answers.
They led at three points at quarter time and doubled the margin to six at the main break. They were able to hit key shots and import Dexter Graham was outstanding.
Annett said they never panicked about the margin and where the game was at.
“We’ve been on top all year and we’ve probably been the best team all year,” he said. “We knew that we had to stay to our style of basketball.
“And over four quarters get the job done.”
The one man the Eagles needed to shut down in the second half was Graham.
The former Eagle finished with a game high 29 points, but didn’t have the same influence after the break.
“He is a tough player to stop and he gave us a bit of trouble in the first half,” Annett said. “Once again, we had five guys contributing [on the scoreboard], they probably only had one.
“We knew that we would wear them down.”
Annett said everyone who came on the court stepped up and contributed when they needed them too including some of their younger guys.
Crowd favourite Lewayne Grant was awarded the most valuable medal for his 19 points, 14 rebound, six assist and four steal performance.
Captain Max Viitala top scored with 21 points for the Eagles, while Gene Vocale scored 20 points.
Annett said the crowd support was great. It was a packed house at the Craigieburn Sports Centre, with plenty of signatures and photos sought post game.
“The guys do a lot of work trying to put back into the juniors,” he said. “It’s been a really big focus not to just focus on our program but to get the junior program coming along and involve the whole club and try and grow the club as well.”
The championship is the Eagles first since 2012. Blake Dickinson was part of that premiership team as well.
Annett said they had made a real focus in the off season to get the club back on the right track.
“We still had eight guys return,” he said. “Most of the group was here last year.
“We’re just a really solid group, the guys we’ve bought in are committed to the cause.
“Everyone gets along and we don’t have any guys that don’t fit. We’re a team mentality, hopefully got up to division 1 and so the same thing.
The club is set to return to division 1 for the first time since 2014.
Annett said the aim coming into this season was to get the club back into division 1.
“We wanted to go to division 1 next year and if we can keep building on that, who knows where we can get to over the next two to three years.”
