Burston to get back on scene
Return of veteran Snake sure to be a headache for Illawarra
ILLAWARRA coach Rob Beveridge estimates Cairns will be a lot tougher with Matt Burston back in the line-up tonight.
But the Cairns camp admitted it would not be as simple as that in their efforts to turn around Wednesday’s 15-point loss to the same side.
The Cairns starting centre was a late scratching from the side, telling The
Cairns Post that a migraine left him with blurred vision until the final quarter of their 97-82 loss.
Illawarra are flying behind big gun trio Kirk Penney, AJ Ogilvy and Kevin Lisch, who all feature in the NBL’s top six scorers.
They all showed their worth on Wednesday, Ogilvy benefiting from Burston’s absence as the hosts broke open a tight contest in the fourth quarter.
The loss leaves Cairns clutching at the hope of a finals appearance and another defeat tonight would leave them four wins behind fourth-placed Hawks and without the series split.
But Beveridge remained praiseworthy of the Snakes, who have only lost once at home in five games this season, after his side’s big win.
“I’d imagine Burston will be back in; that was a huge loss for them as a defender and team veteran and a good match up on AJ,” the coach said.
“It’s a challenge for us to back up physically and challenge to win up there.”
While Cairns captain Cameron Gliddon acknowledged Burston’s absence as a factor he was at a loss to describe how they would peg back the on-song Hawks.
“It hurt not having Burston but (apart from that) we’ve tried a lot of things and still had no answer,” the captain said of his side’s defensive attempts.
His coach Aaron Fearne was equally as searching in his assessment of the side.
“We just can’t guard anybody,” he said.
“Every week we show up and try different things and get the same result.
“We shot the ball well but we aren’t going to win a game giving up close to 100, we need to keep them closer to 80.”
It rings true, with Cairns racking up losing scores including 76, 83, 90, 88, 80 and 79 this season that in previous campaigns would have been enough to prevail.
And in two of their five wins this season Cairns have had to score more than 100 points to secure victory.