LATROBE City Energy crashed out of the BigV division one playoffs following a four-point loss to Mildura Heat on Saturday.
Energy went into the match with momentum on its side, having won five straight and eight of its previous nine matches, including a 37-point drubbing of Mildura in round 17, but could not beat the Heat when it mattered most.
“That’s the unfortunate thing about elimination finals; if you’re not at your best you get beaten,” coach Les Stothard said.
“We didn’t play as well as we had been playing and to Mildura’s credit they played well and got their crowd involved. It’s a pretty tough place to play when their crowd is up and going.
“Nothing seemed to go our way and everything seemed to fall for Mildura.”
Statistically, Energy’s inaccuracy from the field was its bane.
The Latrobe side put up 69 shots to Mildura’s 57 inside the arc but only made it count on 26 occasions.
Energy also struggled from the perimeter, hitting just four of 21 three-point-attempts.
“We didn’t shoot the ball very well; two weeks ago when we were up there we shot the ball really well from the three-point line,” Stothard said.
“We didn’t execute well enough offensively for long enough, we had a few runs here and there… but just couldn’t quite take advantage of those runs.”
Heat started the match on the front foot and outscored the visitors 25 to 17 in the opening quarter.
With its season on the line, Energy overcame its finals nerves and responded at both ends of the court to draw scores level at 37 to 37 by half-time.
Heat led by two at the final change and began to slip away in the last courtesy of 16 trips to the free throw line, while Latrobe could not buy a foul.
“We probably weren’t getting the same calls they were getting which certainly didn’t help, but we didn’t play defence well enough and then didn’t give the referees excuses not to call fouls rather than excuses to call fouls,” Stothard said.
“They probably got away with a lot of stuff that has been getting called recently.”
Russell Permenter was everywhere for Energy in his return from injury, leading the team in points (16), rebounds (11), blocks (3) and assists (3).
Jordan Canovan managed 16 points, but lacked touch with 30 per cent from the field and two of eight three pointers.
Big man Calvin Rees was one of several key players blunted by the physical Mildura defence and was restricted to seven points and seven rebounds in 23 minutes of game time.
“They played a very physical style of basketball and it wasn’t just Cal (that was affected), a number of our players didn’t have the impact they have been having,” Stothard said.
The coach, who has re-signed for 2014, said the group was “shattered” following the loss, but could hold its head high in the wake of an excellent season.
“It’s a great effort to make finals and it was a huge record 15 (wins) and seven (losses) in the regular season; there hasn’t been a Latrobe City Energy side with that sort of record for a long time now,” he said.
“We certainly had been playing well enough to make a really deep run. I think it just shows the importance of winning games that you should win during the season and giving yourself the best opportunity to play a final at home.”
