Lanard Copeland didn’t mince his words after the Sunbury Jets’ 30 point loss to Keilor Thunder in Big V men’s division 1.
The Jets had opportunities to win three matches, winning one, but didn’t fire a shot in the first quarter against Thunder on Saturday night, trailing 30-8 after the first 10 minutes.
While the Jets were better for the rest of the match, there was no coming back from that margin, eventually losing 106-76.
Copeland said it was one of the worst performances he had seen in his coaching career, which left both him and the playing group embarrassed.
“We were terrible,” he said.
“I thought we were closer than we are, but we got ahead of ourselves.
“They gave us a spanking. They were up 12-2 or 14-2 and we were shell-shocked. At the end we tried to hang in, but we were down 20 to 30 points all game.
“My guys don’t know each other, but we were terrible. What we don’t know how to do yet is get back into a game in a quarter like that.”
While disappointed with the overall result of the match, Copeland said he was pleased with how they fought out the game, with the teams drawing the final quarter.
Daniel Jackson, coming off the bench, topscored for the Jets with 18 points
Copeland said the key would be to continue to practice together and make sure the players started to gel. He scheduled an early morning training session on Sunday morning.
“The message has been sent. If we play like we did we’ll be training every Sunday morning.
“It was a two and half hour running session, a defensive session. I think we’ve become closer as a team after it. It was a very good session.”
With the exception of Saturday night’s game, Copeland said there had been a lot of positives out of the season so far.
“The first game we were a new team and the second game we had the game won being seven points up with two minutes to go, but lost on the last shot of the game.
“We could have been 3-0 after a good win on the road last week.
“The fact that they don’t quit has been a positive and I know they have the talent.
“We have to gel though. We know we can be a good team.”
Meanwhile, the Jets women’s side continued its winning start to the state championship division season with a 80-66 victory over Waverley Falcons on Sunday.
