BATHURST Goldminers are counting their lucky stars after scraping home in Saturday’s Waratah Youth League division two men’s game against Moss Vale Magic.
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The visiting Magic brought just five players to the game but Goldminers struggled to utilise the numbers advantage.
Goldminers stumbled to a 102-91 win at the Bathurst Indoor Sports Stadium.
It wasn’t a perfect send-off game for Matt Gray, who is now set to begin his U.S. College basketball career, but with victory the Goldminers still managed a jump up to sixth on the ladder.
Goldminers coach Andrew Osborn is hoping this match will be an outlier in what has otherwise been a promising season.
“It was like somebody had sucked all their energy out before the game had start,” he said.
“As the game progressed we were sluggish, there was no intensity and it was very frustrating. I don’t know how many time outs I used to talk to them about getting their heads in the game and to tell them to start playing our game.
“It was totally different from the game before.”
Moss Vale’s empty bench was due to suspensions handed out for an incident in their previous game against the Illawarra Hawks.
The lack of substitutions gave the Goldminers a chance to run the magic off the court and dominate the game with a high tempo.
However, Goldminers were wasteful in possession and kept themselves under pressure through the night.
“I said to the guys you can’t be complacent and that them having five players means we’re going to win the game handsomely,” Osborn said.
“I don’t know whether the fact it was Matt’s last game impacted on the others. The whole occasion may have taken it’s toll on his game and it may have rubbed off on the others.
“When we start to run we play well. That happened rarely.
“By the same token we managed to do enough to get the win, but it wasn’t a satisfying win by any means.
“My thought was that I’d be able to get the bench a bit of time in this game but even they weren’t playing well. It was very frustrating from a coaching perspective.”
The win is the seventh for the Goldminers from 11 matches.
They face a big test next Saturday for their first game minus Gray, when they travel to play second-placed Hornsby Spiders Green.
“We’re going to have to adjust the way we’re going to play, because we won’t have that dominance Matt brings on the defensive and offensive boards,” Osborn said.