Basketball
BIGV
By SAMUEL DARROCH
THE fashion faux pas of pink and orange proved a costly combination for Latrobe City Energy at the weekend, as their breast cancer support effort fell flat on the court.
Decked out in pink attire to raise funds for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Energy lost its men’s and women’s fixture against Camberwell Dragons at home on Saturday in a forlorn follow up to last week’s wins.
With the wounds from their first home loss of the season still fresh, Energy succumbed to Altona on the road on Sunday 83-79. Poor shooting cost the men in both matches, with their field goal percentage dipping to 37 per cent against the Gators, down from 42.9 in the Camberwell clash.
Tellingly, Jordan Canovan and Russell Permenter had trouble with their radars.
Canovan hit just two from nine field goal attempts to post five points on Saturday, and, while he made an impact against Altona with 18 points, again struggled with 28.6 per cent accuracy.
Permenter shot 33.3 per cent for 13 points in both matches, but proved immense in rebounding and blocked shots.
Energy president David Roberts said the club raised more than $500 for BCNA, but the success of the evening failed to translate to results.
“It was disappointing not to get over the line, they were both close games and hard fought games… but they’ll bounce back from that,” he said.
“We had a lot of activity happening around them and hopefully that didn’t detract from their focus on the game… it was one of those games that could have gone either way. We’ve got a good shooting team from outside and when they shoot well we’re in with a chance to win every game and when they don’t make those shots it makes us a bit vulnerable.”
A subdued first half left the Energy women with too much to do on Saturday night. Energy trailed by 11 at the long break and, despite winning the third quarter 14-5, an inaccurate final term saw the Gippsland girls come up just short, 58-55. Jamilee Pearce continued her relentless stat gathering with a double double of 18 points and 15 rebounds to go with an incredible eight blocks.
The loss leaves the women seventh on ladder, while the men are precariously placed in sixth overall.
Five teams are within striking distance of Energy and all have at least two games in hand on the Latrobe City side, which will not play this weekend.
