Hogan: Power set for playoffs
STAR Palmerston point guard Breland Hogan believes his team is building nicely for the playoffs after its comfortable 88-52 win over Uni Rebels in Round 20 of League Season 1 Darwin Basketball on Friday night.
The good news for the Power was Hogan was rested from this game, while a handful of contributors — Willie Shackleford (18 points), Rohan Cropley (13), Liam Napier and Ben Streeter (12 each) and Jai Weetra (11) — stood out.
“It was a really good performance. It was a good team effort. We played hard the whole game,” Hogan said.
“We shared the ball around and helped each other on defence.
“The young guys — Caleb Johnstone and Jai Weetra — were among our standouts.
“They really stood out on the defensive end and played hard.
“Our big fella Liam has been more aggressive inside.”
Hogan — who has represented Sunshine Coast Phoenix in the QBL and Nunawading in the South-East Australia Basketball League — believes Friday night’s rest will hold him in good stead for the playoffs, which start on Sep- tember 7. And Power players believe they are on track to be highly competitive in the postseason, with two comfortable victories (also prevailing 110-68 over Lightning in Round 19) since their big 100-60 loss to Essington.
“I’ll be well rested for the finals when we’ll have our whole team back,” Hogan said.
“We’re playing pretty well. We’ve just been building each week.
“We had one week we didn’t come out to play against Essington, but besides that we’ve been coming together pretty well.
“It (the loss to the Cannons) was just effort and a lack of attention to detail for 40 minutes.
“It definitely shouldn’t have been such a big loss, but we’ll come back from it.”
In the other men’s League game on Friday night, Ansett (Austin Hill 37 points) were also comfortable 98-68 winners over Razzle.
In women’s League action on Friday night, Ansett triumphed 87-47 over Razzle.
American import Leah Smith starred for the victors with 23 points.
In the other women’s game, Palmerston beat Uni Rebels 53-44, Samantha Bastick (14 points) starring for the Power.