Tara Murray
The Sunbury Jets bounced back in perfect fashion with a hard fought win against the Bulleen Boomers in the Big V women’s championship competition.
After one of their more disappointing performances the week before against ladder leaders, Wyndham, the Jets showed why they are one of the most improved teams on Saturday night against the Boomers.
The Jets led early and were able to hold on throughout, winning 80-71.
Jets coach Monique Caparello said the result against Wyndham wasn’t what they stood for.
“We were pretty disappointed in the performance against Wyndham,” she said. “We know we’re better than what we showed last week.
“To bounce back against a quality opposition like Bellarine for us shows the improvement we’ve made week to week.”
The Jets led by nine points quarter time and that would prove to be the end result.
Caparello said it wasn’t the prettiest game of basketball.
“It got pretty scrappy towards the end,” she said. “We stayed composed and executed a lot of opportunities.
“Abbey Hildebrand was fantastic for us and Veronika [Mirkovic] is consistently great. Abbey stayed in the game and let it come to her and took her opportunities.”
Hildebrand finished with 28 points while Mirkovic had 20 points.
The win keeps the Jets in the top four.
It’s a long way from the start of the season when the side was still coming together and had players come into the side late in the piece.
“It was a very trust the process with the girls,” Caparello said. “They stuck at it and we’ve got some depth there in our team.
“They trust and believe in each other and that’s important on the court.”
While in the top four, Caparello knows they can’t slip up in the back part of the season with the competition being so close.
She said every game is important in the run home.
“They [the players] are just as hungry as me to play finals,” she said. “We want to solidify our spot in the top four.
“We have Wyndham and Bellarine on the run home. We want to be able to push those teams.
“The advantage we do have is a lot of those games are at home and we want to put on a show for our home crowd.”
Meanwhile, the Jets men were on the end of another close loss in the championship division.
Facing the Keysborough Cougars at home, the Jets fell behind in the first three quarters.
The Jets, who were missing a couple of players, came home strongly in the final quarter, outscoring the Cougars 26-15, but it was too little, too late, losing 89-80.
Nathan Marshall top scored with 25 points.
The Jets sit in eighth spot with seven wins from 16 games.
The Jets face Western Port Steelers on Saturday night.
