Tara Murray
The Sunbury Jets are hoping to bounce back from a lacklustre couple of weeks in the Big V men’s championship division.
After being thumped by the Keysborough Cougars last weekend, the Jets task didn’t get any easier against last season’s champions, Wyndham.
The Jets had the better of it in the first half, leading by eight points at half time. The margin disappeared in the third quarter with Wyndham finishing it off in the final quarter to win, 94-89.
Jets coach John White said they always knew that it was going to be a tough task against Wyndham, which is on top of the table.
“It’s been a bit of lacklustre two weeks,” he said.
“Last night [Saturday] I was happy with the adjustments we had made from last week and the adjustments we made during the game.
“We lost Nathan Marshall and Trevor Clayton and it was a bit hard to overcome.”
White said despite going into the match undermanned, they knew they had a number of players ready to step up and have more opportunities.
He said it was something they spoke about during the week.
“We had to make some adjustments and there were guys who stepped into starting roles and did some really good jobs,” he said.
“There’s others guys who played a larger role and they stepped up.”
White said Marshall was on a mid-season break which had been planned before the season, while they’re waiting on scans on Clayton’s hamstring.
They were hoping the hamstring injury wasn’t as bad as they first thought.
White was full of credit of the job that Wyndham did on Ish Sanders, who scored just 14 points well below his season average.
White said while Sanders was cut up about the performance but he saw some positives out of it.
“He was quieter, but still nearly had a triple-double,” he said. “Others stepped up and it will hopefully help us coming into finals.
“We have full faith in everyone in the team. From a coaching point of view, we’re happy with the way that the game looked like.”
Max Barkeley top scored with 31 points while Gerald Blackshear had 25 points.
The loss leaves the Jets at the bottom part of the top four, but there isn’t much between the top sides.
White said they were just focusing on one game at a time.
“Obviously we want to push back towards the top of the ladder,” he said. “We take it each week a at time,
“It’s a tough one next week. We face Bellarine and then Western Port. Western Port beat Keysborough, which beat us by 34 points last week.
“We’ll make sure we’re prepared, but we’re not going to look at Western Port until we’ve faced Bellarine.”
The Jets women’s side split their two matches.
On Saturday night, they fell just short of ending Wyndham’s winning run, losing 88-86.
On Sunday, the Jets rebounded with a 94-79 win.
The Jets remain seventh on the ladder.
