Ararat Redbacks recorded a disappointing start to their first trip on the road for the 2018-19 season.
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The Redbacks came up against Bacchus Marsh Lions and Bellarine Storm in what eventuated into two losses.
Coach Marcus Jenkins said he was disappointed in what eventuated in a 42 point loss, 114-72, against the Lions.
“We just didn’t execute and couldn’t hit any shots. We had a lot of the ball – they were just the better team,” he said.
Lion’s Max Beaumont annihilated Redback’s defence, scoring an individual 42 points.
Before the match against the Redbacks, Beaumont was on a total of 31 points for the five games already played in the season.
“We were caught off guard. He absolutely lit it up,” Jenkins said.
Beaumont was rewarded with eight 3-pointers in his dominating performance.
The Lions were able to shut down Zachery Dunmore, an issue Jenkins said he thought the players worked through and others stood up.
“We were lead well by Dj (Woods), scoring 22 points for us. We have three very strong offensive players in Zach, Dj and Josh (Fiegert) and something we will work on in the season to find other avenues to the basket,” he said.
Jenkins said that towards the end of the game – player management played a role.
“In the last quarter, our starters had a good rest so they would be fresh for the game against Bellarine. Our intensity against the Lions was there in patches. We are getting there in terms of the expectations I want us to meet,” he said.
“Defensively – our principles are there. Our reaction time is a little off the mark. We know what we need to work on and how to execute it.”
Redbacks managed to keep themselves in the game against Bellarine going down by 15 points, 96-81.
Jenkins said the team played much better against Storm.
“We played much better than we did against the Lions. The scoreboard didn’t really reflect the game of basketball that was executed,” he said.
Woods went away with another stand out performance sinking 25 points for the team.
Storm’s Ashley Cannan and Josiah King both scored more than 20 points for their team.
“It was a good learning curve for the young bigs in my team to play against players like that. My players were able to watch how they conduct themselves both offensively and defensively on the basketball court,” he said.
Jenkins said there were about eight minutes of basketball which gave away the 15 points and an aspect of the Redbacks game he will be looking at carefully during the week.
“We just had a few moments here and there where our intensity wasn’t at 100 per cent,” he said.
“A big thing we will be talking about this week during our recovery sessions is making sure the boys believe in themselves. I believe in them and their ability and we will be making sure we go into our next game full of confidence,” he said.
The Redbacks will undertake a recovery session on Monday night and monitor players during the week.
“A couple of our older players have come up sore again from the double-header. Toby Smith copped an elbow to the eye against Storm which we will be monitoring closely,” Jenkins said.
At the conclusion of round four in the Country Basketball League Southwest conference, the Redbacks sit 8th on the ladder.
The Redbacks will host their third double-header of the season on November 10 to 11.