The Bathurst Goldminers picked up their second consecutive Waratah Youth League division two victory – and fourth from their last five outings – on Saturday night, leading from go to woah to claim a comfortable 96-78 victory over the Hornsby Spiders.
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Playing in front of a vocal crowd on Bathurst Indoor Sports Stadium’s hardwood, the Goldminers drained the first bucket of the game and weren’t headed after that.
The result was an important one for the Miners too, keeping the Bathurst side inside the competition’s top 10 and in front of the Spiders too, and i also builds on the momentum the outfit’s enjoyed in recent weeks.
Outside an ordinary loss to Illawarra a fortnight ago, the Goldminers have boasted an unblemished record over the past five rounds.
“It was a performance we needed against a side of that quality,” Bathurst coach Andrew Osborn said.
“We got away to the start that we had to get away to.
“We led the whole game, it panned out as just progressively getting that much further ahead and in the last three-four minutes, I played the whole bench. I took the entire starting five off.”
The Spiders did make the hosts earn their win though.
The visitors shot well in the first half but the Goldminers adjusted their defensive patterns to shut down the Spiders’ biggest scoring threats – Jack Vandervelde, Nowel Musa and Jahaan Sallie.
“Defensively we did quite a good job in the first half and I talked to them at half-time – and they recognised this too which is good – about how we just had to be patient and just wait for that last explosion at the end,” Osborn said.
“What they did was just hang off their man just a tad which then gave them room to pounce when the final explosion came. In the second half, nine times out of 10, we either got an intercept or they had to throw up a shot which was not a good shot.
“They got very, very frustrated with that.”
One area that Osborn said did let the Goldminers down was an “abysmal” free-throw percentage.
Had his been more accurate from the charity stripe, the winning margin could have been close to 40 points.
“We spend hours and hours and hours working on our free throws, so I don’t know what the issue was. At one stage we were one from eight,” he said.
“I guess sometimes our shot selection wasn’t the best either, but other than that, we played some really, really good offensive basketball and brought the crowd to their feet.
“We didn’t drop our bundle, we kept at it, and in the second half a with the couple of the changes we made, their main shooter, Will [Cranston-Lown] pretty much took him out of the game.”
Osborn hopes to see another large crowd in attendance this Saturday when the Goldminers host Most Vale.
