By Ewen McRae
Whittlesea Pacers coach Brian Vaughns said he was “embarrassed” by his side’s performance at the weekend when it went down to cellar dweller LaTrobe City on Saturday.
Travelling to take on the struggling Energy in Big V division 1, the Pacers were made to pay for a lacklustre third quarter as they went down 98-83.
Vaughns said that while his side was missing some key players and had others playing injured, the effort on the court was not up to standard.
“We were a bit short-handed, but that’s no excuse,” he said.
“Emmerson (Potts-Broughton) is in New Zealand, Nathan (Freeman) did his ribs during the week so he played with bruised ribs, Tom (Watson) hurt his back so missed and James Henderson and James Smith both missed with rolled ankles, so the team had a different look.
“We didn’t really have the firepower, but we still had ample opportunity to be successful and we just didn’t get the job done.
“We didn’t come out prepared in the third quarter – we fell asleep there and just never woke up.
“I was a bit embarrassed that even though we were short-handed, we were nowhere near where we need to be, and I made that very clear to the players.”
The two sides were fairly evenly matched through the early stages of the game, with the lead changing hands regularly and the Pacers holding up well under some strong pressure from the home side.
Whittlesea held a slender three-point lead at half-time, but the game slipped away in the third as the Energy made some crusical shots and began to open up a match-winning lead.
While Vaughns tried some different player combinations, the Pacers never got back into the contest.
Rory Smith played a lone hand at times for the visitors as he racked up 27 points, five rebounds and four assists. Hakeem Simon collected 15 rebounds.
Vaughns said his side had some soul searching to do ahead of this weekend’s double-header with Keysborough and Bellarine.
“If we’d lost, but played up to the standard that we’re capable of, then so be it,” he said. “But we did not show up and that’s what hurts.
“I was disappointed in our effort and we need that to improve. I thought we turned a corner a few weeks ago with some wins and some close losses … we need to find a way to get back to that for the rest of the season.”
