Whittlesea Pacers are already turning their attention to the second week of finals as they look to keep their title hopes alive in Big V men’s division 1.
The Pacers kicked off finals action on Saturday night against the Coburg Giants, for the chance to play Gippsland United for a spot in the grand final.
Things didn’t go to plan for the Pacers as they lost 110-86.
Scores were level at quarter time, before the Giants jumped out to a nine point lead at the main break.
They increased to 17 points at three quarter time before they finished the game strongly.
Pacers coach Des Radoslovic said they have to find a way to respond now.
“It’s never great to have a loss, but we’ve earned the double change and move to next week,” he said.
“We started well and going in without our import Raheem Anthony, we needed to play a great game to beat a great team like Coburg on the road.”
Radoslovic said they started well and stayed focused on the game plan for most of the game.
He said there was one area of difference in the game that proved costly.
“They shot the ball better than us,” he said. “We generated the shots we wanted to get, but we didn’t shoot well.
“The intensity was right up, the crowd was really good.
“We were right there in the first half before they had patches in the second half where they went on a few runs and we went cold from the field.”
Radoslovic said they threw everything at the Giants in the final quarter and tried some different things to see if they could get back into the game.
He said they would rather the margin blow out than not try and make a real contest of it.
Angus Fischer, Oscar Percy and Pat Green each scored 18 points for the Pacers in the loss.
The Pacers season will now be on the line this weekend in a knockout semi final against the Warrandyte Venom, which beat Western Port in the elimination final, 112-96.
Speaking before the elimination final, Radoslovic said they’d had some success against both sides and had no preference who they played in front of a big Whittlesea crowd this Saturday.
Radoslovic said he wasn’t sure whether Anthony would return for the semi final.
“We’ll see,” he said. “He has a back injury and is one of those game time decisions.”
