The Whittlesea Pacers have gone one up in their Big V women’s division 1 grand final series against Geelong Supercats, putting behind them the third-quarter lapses that had troubled them earlier in the finals.
The Pacers led by a point at half-time before their defence stepped up to another level, restricting the Supercats to eight points in the third quarter while scoring 19 themselves.
The Supercats outscored the Pacers in the fourth quarter but the Pacers had a big enough lead to win 69-62.
Pacers coach Shannon Bodley said the third-quarter performances had been a focus at training in recent weeks.
“We have worked on it and learnt from our mistakes quickly,” he said.
“We can’t have lapses like that – we needed to hit them hard after the break. The aim was to set up a lead in the third quarter.”
Pleasingly for Bodley, his side held strong in the final quarter with support from a big, vocal Mill Park home crowd he described as the “sixth man”.
“They [Geelong] got back to five points and we knew from what they did two weeks ago against us they can score quickly,” he said.
“That was something we learnt – that if they scored a couple of baskets, we had to do that ourselves. We didn’t panic.”
Bodley said scoring impact off the bench was another key to the win.
“It’s always nice to have Kimetria Hayden score her 20 points but this week we found other options,” he said.
“Four players on each side scored double figures but our bench scored 12 points and theirs scored six points. It probably won it for us.”
Hayden top-scored for the Pacers with 14 points. Haylee Cooper-Maclean, Kellie Down and Emmie O’Nial all made double figures.
The win was the first for the Pacers against the Supercats this season.
Bodley said that was “a big psychological thing” to overcome.
“Being 1-0 is the perfect advantage and we get two hits at them to win the championship,” he said.
“We are 40 minutes away from the championship and Geelong are 80 minutes from the championship.
“We need to do what we did in game one. All the pressure is on them.”
Game two will be played on Saturday night in Geelong, while game three – if needed – will be on Sunday, also in Geelong.
