The Whittlesea Pacers know their fate is in their own hands in the run home to finals in Big V men’s state championship basketball.
The Pacers sit two games outside the top six with three rounds remaining before finals and have a game in hand over sixth-placed Bulleen.
Speaking before the weekend’s match, Pacers coach Ross Moll said his side most likely needed to win five of its final six matches.
“We have a tough run home,” Moll said. “Four might be enough for us but we need to beat one of the top two sides.”
That task was made harder when the Pacers lost 82-78 to second-placed Corio on Sunday, meaning they would likely need to win all their remaining matches.
Michael Petridis top-scored with 25 points and also had seven rebounds.
Moll said the side needed to be more consistent.
“We have had players who have had good games and then the next week been down,” he said.
“We talk about it a lot at training … some of the younger guys don’t have a lot of experience at this level.”
He said the Pacers needed to keep putting themselves in positions to win games.
“We are focusing on what we have to do each week,” he said.
“We’ve been putting ourselves in positions to win games – we have to keep doing that and we have to believe that we can win them.
“Sometimes it’s not going to work but we’ve learnt from the losses and wins.”
Moll said that besides an injured Jason Dirkx, he had a full team to select from in the run home.
He is hoping his side will not be in the position of needing to beat the top side – Ringwood as it currently stands – in the final round to make finals.
“I’d prefer not to be putting ourselves in that position,” he said.
In division 1 women, the Pacers had the bye at the weekend. They are on top of the ladder with four games remaining.
