It’s an old cliche but it’s exactly how Bathurst Goldminers coach Andrew Osborn described the 83-72 victory over Camden Valley Wildfire at the Bathurst Indoor Sports Stadium on Saturday. 

Camden took the lead off Goldminers early in the first quarter and worked on controlling the game, taking a 25-20 lead at the end of the first quarter and and a 38-35 lead into half-time.

The visitors continued to work on their lead and pulled out to a buffer as high as nine points in the third quarter but Goldminers were resilient and pinged back their rivals and took a 61-55 lead heading into the last quarter.

Osborne described the Waratah Youth League men’s division two game as “tough” and “physical”.

“In patches we were really, really good but in others we were not playing as well as we should’ve been,” he said. 

“Camden led for the entire first half and lead 38-35 at half-time. We really scrapped and scraped in that first half and we didn’t have the energy levels that we needed. They didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves and there wasn’t much enthusiasm. 

“We spoke about that at half-time and in the second-half and we outscored them all together. We played a lot better. The energy levels rose, the enthusiasm levels rose, the smiles started to come onto the faces and we minimised the turnovers.

“We just did the basic things right in the second-half, that we weren’t doing right in the first half.” 

Fouls proved costly for Camden in the two half, with the final statistics indicating Goldminers had made 30 free throws to the Wildfire’s 15. 

Osborne said that proved to be the difference.

“It was a hard fought win, one that we needed,” he said.

“It was a game of two totally different halves. 

“Why was the first half like it was? Your guess is as good as mine.” 

Goldminers point guard Will Cranston-Lowe top scored for the hosts, sinking 27 points.

As well, Zak Simons (17 points), Kobe Mansell (16 points) and Anai Mathiang (13 points) all scored double-figure totals, in their team’s ninth win of the season. 

The win now means Goldminers have taken Camden’s sixth place, who fell down to eighth in the ladder.

Coming up this Saturday on June 30 for Goldminers will travel to the big smoke to play the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles at the Northern Beaches Indoor Spots Centre.

Sea Eagles are currently in 10^th and have won the same amount of games as Goldminers, who have won 14 games, but have lost two more games having played a total of 16 games.