STUNNING OVERTIME WIN GIVES ECHUCA PIRATES FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE
ECHUCA BLITZES OVERTIME THRILLER
ECHUCA Pirates stunned country basketball at the weekend – coming from 14 points down in the third quarter to a sensational 10-point overtime victory to complete the club’s incredible Cinderella season.
After winning just three games in the previous two seasons the rejuvenated Pirates finished the regular 2018/19 season on top of the ladder before outlasting the Mildura Heat in Bendigo on Saturday afternoon to win 85-75.
It left the large Echuca crowd that had made the trip stamping their feet and screaming support as the seconds ticked down towards the club’s first championship.
And while it was a team effort that got the Pirates to the finals and then into overtime it was the Luke Rosendale show that tore the heart out of Mildura in those last five minutes.
He opened overtime with a threepoint bomb that was all net and on a turnover swept back down the court to land another devastating long shot.
With 3.09 left on the clock he was fouled and swished both free throws.
At 2.49 he was back on the stripe and swished another double. Then repeated it at 1.49. Incredibly Rosendale had scored the first 12 points of the overtime period and Mildura could do nothing to stop him after double teaming him for much of the regulation time.
He was fouled again at 54.7 seconds and finally missed his first shot for the period before sinking the second throw.
Rosendale scored one more point at 37.7 to finish overtime with 14 points – and 34 to clinch the championship MVP.
It was the perfect result for such a fantastic season – and a result an emotionally overcome coach Leo Tenace said he never doubted even when his side was falling apart in the third quarter.
“The third term was awful, we were suddenly being played by Mildura instead of playing our game, but this team has so much determination, so much spirit and they stuck together and that’s what counted in the end,” Tenace said, not knowing who to hug next.
Two things kept Mildura in touch during the first half – some devastating outside shooting from the likes of Jay Madigan, who hit six from long range and Dallas Brown who added another four. In all 36 Heat points came from three-pointers. But when they did miss the Echuca defence, with Tyler Phillips like a colossus under the boards (and chiming in with 16 points of his own), repeatedly drove the Pirates back into attack. Liam Tenace did plenty of damage with his 13 points complemented by some aggressive play at both ends running Mildura ragged. Post-game both Rosendale and Phillips downplayed their roles and both cited the 14-point team comeback as the highlight.
Rosendale didn't ever know what the final score! was, neither did Phillips, but they both knew the team had turned almost certain defeat into a comeback for the ages. Rosendale said he had no idea how the players would top this season and said right now he didn’t care. “I’m just going to enjoy this for what it is,” he said, with a grin like a Cheshire cat. Like his coach, Phillips said he never doubted the team would turn the third quarter around. He said they had done it before and he never felt at any point that the win was beyond them.
“It did get a bit nerve wracking but I was certain we would fight back and we did." Nerve wracking was right. Under the most pressure Mildura managed for the game, Riley Clarke, who finished with eight points, on a fast break, with no Heat player within 10m, banged the easiest layup of his season off the iron. It summed up a horror stretch for the Pirates.
But late in the third quarter the team refocused and regathered, the defence tightened the screws again and the shots started to fall and by the final break the Pirates had Mildura back within range, down just 48-57.
Rosendale perhaps put it best, when asked if he realised he had scored so many points in overtime: “Really, I didn’t know that. I was just so focused on staying in the zone. Really, 14 points? Really?” Then he jogged back across the court to his teammates. To the team; his team, their team, Echuca’s team.
The championship team.