Giants men dealt twin defeats in gut-wrenching fashion

Close, but not close enough.

The Goldfields Giants return to Niels Hansen Stadium this Saturday night under pressure to avoid a third consecutive men’s defeat, but the form line is misleading after gallant road performances last weekend against Geraldton and Perth both went unrewarded.

Twin defeats — on Saturday night in Geraldton, and the following afternoon in Perth — were by a combined seven points that underpinned the evenness of the competition and a rigorous travel schedule for regional teams, especially the Giants.

The trip was made without head coach Matt Van Pelt, who the club confirmed on Monday was on personal leave.

Sharni Winter stepped up to lead the team in his absence.

In game one, the Giants trio of De’Sean Parsons, Kon Anguik and Randy Bell combined for 67 points and 23 rebounds, but the team fell just short in overtime, 96-94.

Geraldton, the defending NBL1 champions, lowered their colours in field goal percentage and three-point percentage.

But in a close game, the Buccaneers converted at 79 per cent from the free throw line, compared with the Giants’ 56 per cent.

On Sunday against the Redbacks, Parsons and Anguik combined for 43 points and 16 rebounds, and Majier Garang racked up 11 points, 13 rebounds and two assists in a 99-94 defeat.

Winter said the weekend couldn’t have been better scripted for her debut as an NBL1 head coach.

“That (first) game (against Geraldton) being sent into overtime on the luckiest shot I’ve seen was overwhelming,” she said.

“The players busted their backsides in the last quarter to try and keep that lead, and in overtime we had a couple of good looks in the last 10 seconds and didn’t score.

“The reality is you have to score to win, and being in Geraldton, their fans are insanely loud — in a time-out, players could barely hear me because it is just so loud in that stadium.

“The players all bought in, they all listened, and executed what we asked.

“But we just couldn’t make that final shot.”

Reflecting on the Saturday-night loss, Winter couldn’t help but ponder what might have been.

“Free throws are one of those times when there’s no one on you, but it’s mental pressure,” she said.

“It’s not actually the physical pressure of someone being next to you, but instead that mental game when you hope to make the shot, and if you don’t, you try and shake it off.

“But it’s more than one moment that makes a result, and we didn’t make the shot at the end of the game.

“There there had been multiple times when we could have worked that extra 5 per cent harder to snatch that win.”

On Sunday’s loss, Winter said the team paid for a sluggish start.

“The Sunday game was always going to be hard — up early to get on the bus, driving 4½ hours to get to Perth before we even play the game, and we had a flat start, down by 13 points in the first quarter,” she said.

“We were constantly playing catch-up basketball and the challenge was whether we could make it competitive, but we did.

“We had an impressive third quarter, but we just couldn’t maintain it in the fourth.

“We actually play the Redbacks again at home this Saturday which is a chance to redeem ourselves, and we have all week to make some adjustments.

“We’ll watch the film, go through our recovery, and get back out on the court ready to make those adjustments.”

The results have seen the Giants slip to 11th place with a 2-4 win-loss record.