Tara Murray
The Sunbury Jets responded in a big way in the Big V men’s state championship division.
After a poor performance before the previous round against the Hume City Broncos, it was more of the Jets on Saturday night that we have become used to.
The Jets took the lead early against Melbourne University, before Melbourne hit back to lead by one point at half time.
The Jets were the better team in the second half, winning 92-84.
Jets coach John White said he was happy with that performance.
“It was good for us to test ourselves,” he said.
“The Broncos game we were more focused on what they did and not how we wanted to play.
“We went through the motions defensively and couldn’t play on our terms. We made some adjustments defensively and how we wanted to do things during the week.”
White said the key for them was to set the tone defensively early and it would flow onto the rest of their game.
He said they were happy with how they defended early to get off to a good start.
Offensively, White said they were also better than the previous round.
“We still have things to work on, but it was better than the week before,” he said.
“We ran more offensively and the guys who are fairly proficient scores, we wanted to get then some easy looks at the rim and get their eye in quickly and go from there.”
One player they really focused on getting shots for, was Ish Sanders. After a rare low scoring game against the Broncos, Sanders hit back with 47 points, shooting from 50 per cent from the field.
White said they needed to use Sanders more.
“Last week he had eight shots for the game, which is nowhere near enough for someone with his scoring prowess,” he said.
“We had a huge focus on him as a scorer. He can make some tough shots, but he got some really good looks out of others allowing him that.
“To have 47 points after eight the week before is credit to the type of character he is.
“From a team perspective we played really well.”
Sanders was one of four players to score double figures in the win.
The Jets enter the Easter break, sitting 2-2.
White said considering the season they’ve had so far, they’re happy with that,
“We’re pretty happy, we’ve had a disrupted start to the year,” he said.
“Our pre-season has not been ideal. We had an import move on late in the pre-season and we’re still waiting for Gerald Blackshear to be cleared by FIBA and Basketball Australia.”
White said Blackshaw, who was part of last season’s grand final team, had been training with the side for four weeks, so it was just a waiting game until they get the green light.
