By Tara Murray
Whittlesea Pacers have secured a Big V women’s division 1 finals berth.
The Pacers, who didn’t play finals last season sealed the berth with a round remaining, with a strong win against Latrobe City Energy on Saturday night.
The Pacers won every quarter as they built throughout the game, winning 85-60.
Carly Simons top scored with 16 points, while Last-Tear Poa and Jade Wise scored 15 points, as all but one player hit the scoreboard.
Pacers assistant coach Damon Lowery said they were happy to have cemented a top six spot.
He said they started slowly against the Energy, before a strong finish.
“Finals are definitely happening, it’s whether we finish fifth or sixth,” he said.
“If we win this week we finish fifth, if we lose we most likely finish sixth.
“We want to win that last game of the year to take momentum into finals.”
Lowery said if you had have said to him during the preseason they would finish in the lower part of the top six, he would have taken it.
“We’ve been fairly solid,” he said.
“We knocked off the top team earlier in the year. We won most of the games we should have won, but lost a couple of games we should have won.
“Last year we didn’t make finals, so there’s been some big improvements.”
The key for the Pacers this season has been there depth across the court.
Last-Tear Poa leads the scoring, averaging 12 points a game, but every player has had big games and contributed.
With several players having played in championships at this level and higher, there is plenty of experience as well.
The Pacers face Chelsea Gulls in the final round, before finals start the following week.
The Pacers look set to hit the road in the first week of the finals, and will likely face Warrnambool Mermaids or the Geelong Supercats.
The Pacers have lost all their games to those two sides this year.
Lowery said despite that, they’d take plenty of confidence into finals.
“We’re confident that we can beat anyone,” he said.
