Tara Murray
An undermanned Keilor Thunder has had a solid start to the National Basketball League 1 South season.
The Thunder were sitting 2-2 after the first two rounds, with two round three matches scheduled for the weekend, after deadline.
The Thunder split their two matches on the weekend.
Thunder coach Liam Glascott said it had been a solid start to the season.
“Obviously it’s been a tough start to our season without a couple of our bigs, however to be 2-2 is pretty good.
“We only had nine guys on Thursday night and the boys ran out of legs, while Kilsyth played some better basketball on both ends of the court.
“We were able to bounce back against Geelong on Sunday which was good. They have a lot of experienced players.”
After not playing any midweek games last season, the Thunder had two in round two.
Glascott said they always knew it would be difficult with the number of matches they had.
“Four in 10 days to start the season,” he said. “It was more of an NBL schedule, it was something different.
“Some teams had five games in the first couple of weeks.”
Glascott said they were starting to see some of their players get into the games and the season.
Trevor Lakes had 20 points against Geelong, while Cruz Beasley and Cooper Kirkman both came off the bench and provided a spark.
Jalen Gibbs has been leading the way for the Thunder, averaging 26.25 points per game the second most in the competition.
Glascott said they were hoping to get some reinforcements in the next month which will give them extra depth and height.
“One of our bigs is a college kid and he’ll arrive in mid May,” he said.
“Deng Acuoth who won a championship win the Knox Raiders it the other big. He’s currently in Lebanon and will play over there until the end of this month.
“The plan is to get him for his first game against Ballarat on May 4. We’re still working on another player who we’re waiting for them to put pen to paper.
“Three more pieces to come in to help us have a pretty good crack at it.”
The Thunder was at home on both Saturday and Sunday against the Casey Cavaliers and NW Tasmania, both after deadline.
Glascott said before the matches that both would be challenging.
“Casey have been up and down,” he said. “They beat Sandringham who are one of the favourites.
“North West have been similar they started with a big win in the first round and then some large losing margins on the weekend.
The Thunder women won both their matches on the weekend to remain undefeated.
