The Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers dominated Cockburn by 36 points on Saturday night at Activewest Stadium, but coach Mark Heron still knows there is room for improvement.

The first half in their 116-80 victory was some of the Buccs’ best basketball this season as they outscored the Cougars 65-38 by half-time.

Heron said the team needs to maintain that level of play for longer in games.
“We have a process that we need to play for 48 minutes and that is what we push to the players,” he said.

“Also our defence always needs to be on song, our offence is going to come and go.
“In patches we have played near our best and the start of the game tonight was brilliant.
“But we need to make sure that patch goes for longer to really be competitive and challenge the top teams in the league we need to produce that over half a game and three-quarters of a game.”

It was the Buccaneers’ fourth consecutive win and entrenches them in the top four on the State Basketball League ladder.

Buccaneer Bennie Lewis top scored with 32 points while teammates Odartey Blankson and Carter Cook netted 31 and 23 points respectively.

A feature of the home team’s win was the efficient shooting performance.

The Buccs made 47.8 per cent of their field goals for the game with Blankson and Cook the most efficient, netting a combined 19-of-31 shots.

Heron said the Buccs’ impressive start was not one of the team’s main focuses pre-game.
“We got a start again that was pretty impressive,” he said.
“When you shoot the ball like that and not only did we shoot we, but we played pretty decent defence.

“You always want to get off to a good start, but it is not something we talk about in the changerooms or anything like that.”

Geraldton scored the first 10 points of the game and had a packed Activewest Stadium on their feet.
They continued their dominance through the first stanza and led 31-10 at quarter-time.
That lead grew to 27 points at half-time.

Cockburn equalled the Buccs in the third term with the help of coach Stephen Charlton’s energetic coaching style.

Geraldton led 94-61 at the final change and had the win wrapped up.

The large margin allowed Heron to empty his bench and play his players who do not usually see much court time as the Buccs ran out comfortable winners.

Article by Taylor Courtland (Geraldton Newspapers)

Photo by Sebastian Komatsu (Sebpix)