Whittlesea Pacers have lost import Jermaine Williams for the rest of the Big V state championship season with a torn Achilles tendon.
Williams had missed the past three games because of the injury and his absence leaves a big hole in the Pacers’ game as he had averaged 18 points, 12 rebounds and 4.6 assists in his seven games this season.
“Take out Williams from any team and it will hurt. It affects our depth,” Pacers coach Ross Moll said.
The Pacers are hoping new import Chris Knight will be able to fill the void.
Without Williams, the Pacers lost both their weekend matches.
In the first game, they lost 66-80 to the Werribee Devils. On Sunday, they went down 75-82 to the Bulleen Boomers.
Moll said the team had dug in without Williams and was in with a chance going into the final quarter of both games.
“On Saturday night the Devils shot well in the last term to get the win.
“Today [Sunday] we were 12 points down at the last break and got to within two or three points, then we had a couple of breakdowns on the court.
“Last week we dug in and got a win [against Melbourne Tigers] and we were confident going into both those games.
“The guys stuck with it and I can’t question their efforts; it’s just the execution.”
Moll said the club was on the right track after a tough start to the season.
“We’re a fairly young side and we didn’t have Jermaine for the first four games because of visa issues.
“We battled away and got ourselves back to 6-6 before this weekend’s games so we’re now 6-8.”
In other state championship matches, Hume City Broncos lost to Waverley 84-94.
The Broncos were in the game until the last quarter when the Falcons outscored them 22-14. Jermaine Maybank top- scored for the Broncos with 21 points.
In the state championship women’s comp, the Broncos defeated the Falcons 74-68. Colleen Planeta top-scored with 26 points and 12 rebounds.
In division 1 women, the Pacers lost to Southern Peninsula Sharks and the Mildura Heat.
