Tough loss on a big night for Braves Men

There’s little doubt what Bendigo Bank Braves Men’s coach Stephen Black thought of his team’s loss to Keilor at Red Energy Arena on Saturday night.

“I think that was one of the most disappointing performances we’ve had since I’ve been here,” he said.

“It was a very disappointing result but probably an equally disappointing execution of what we were trying to do.

“We were very, very poor in areas we had a focus on.”

But it wasn’t all bad news for the Braves as they took on the top-six Thunder team in front of the largest crowd of the year.

Bendigo went basket-for-basket with Keilor in the first quarter, leading 23-21 at quarter time.

Three minutes into the second quarter, Bendigo’s lead was seven thanks to strong starts from Mitch Clarke, Koch Bar, and Rowan Mackenzie.

Four minutes later Bendigo was down by three, and that wasn’t the end of the turnaround. A 12-0 run by Keilor in the last two minutes of the second quarter saw Bendigo down 40-57 at the main break, and in trouble.

Bendigo opened the scoring floodgates in the third quarter with 26 points, but its defense couldn’t stop Keilor, who put on 28 at the other end.

The final quarter was much of the same, with Bendigo going down 85 to 111.

Clarke and Mackenzie finished with 22, and Andrew Robinson 12.

“Even when we were up by seven it didn’t feel like we could have gone on with it,” Black said.

“We weren’t getting things right defensively. In the first quarter when we were up, we were getting away with it because we were scoring,

“When the scoring dried up, that’s when the problems reared up.”

Black thanked Braves fans for coming out in force to support his team and mark the jersey retirements of club legends Taylor Bell, Gabe Richards, Jane Chalmers, and Chris Hogan.

“What added to the frustration was we had so many fans in the stadium to mark such an important occasion,” he said.

“To not play Braves basketball with so much support in the house was particularly frustrating.

“We were really grateful to the people who turned up and were there to support the club.

“The positive thing is we know what we are trying to do, and it is all correctable.”