A tough weekend for Whittlesea Pacers with both men’s and women’s teams going down in Big V action.
The Pacers’ men suffered a 72-51 loss to league leaders Sunbury Jets at home on Sunday afternoon.
A back-and-forth opening period saw the Pacers take the lead at various points and trail by just two points at quarter time.
The Jets hit their afterburners in the second quarter, outscoring Whittlesea 27-8 to lead by 21 at the half.
The Pacers didn’t let the lead blow out, but was too big a hill to overcome as the Jets cruised to the win.
Jayce Beasley led the Pacers with 21 points, five rebounds and two assists while Judson Seumanu chipped in with 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Whittlesea coach Brian Vaughns said it was always going to be tough against the 14-3 Jets but thought the Pacers still had a chance.
“We had the right game plan but we just didn’t execute that in second quarter,” he said.
“We forced them into a zone because we were attacking their import and make him play defence.”
We did that and they immediately went to a zone and we couldn’t capitalise it even though we prepared for that.
“There were a lot of good things yesterday, we just produced nothing in the second quarter. We’re bit shorthanded right now and need everyone on the same page.”
The Pacers are now 11th on the division one ladder at 4-12 and take on Latrobe City Energy next week on the road.
“We’ve got a good chance against them and hopefully we can get back on track again,” Vaughns said.
“We’ll take the positives and take them into next week.”
The Pacers women had a tough afternoon against Keilor Thunder on Sunday, going down 95-58 at Keilor.
Keilor led wire-to-wire in their convincing win.
The Pacers were able to stick close in the first period, trailing by just four points.
The Thunder stretched the lead out to 16 points at half-time with a quick 13-0 run.
Leading by 20 after three quarters, Keilor blew the lead out with a 29-12 fourth period for the win.
The Pacers struggled inside, getting out-rebounded 66-39 with 30 second chance points to four and 48 points in the paint to 24.
Rachel Bell had 30 points, five rebounds and three assists in the loss while Dani Reinwald had a tough shooting night scoring 10 points on 4-13 shooting but was still dominant on the glass, pulling down 19 rebounds.
The Pacers host Sunbury Jets at Mill Park Stadium on Saturday night.
Tough losses for Pacers
