Buccs looking to go back to their brand of ball in double-header after overtime match

The Geraldton Buccaneers stay undefeated after a close win at home, but will have a tough time keeping their perfect record intact, with a double-header on the road this weekend.

The Buccs had a double-digit lead in the first quarter against the Goldfields Giants, but needed an Aaron Ralph buzzer-beater to keep them alive.

Coach Dayle Joseph said they were lucky to come away with the 96-94 home win.

“We had to assess why we were in that situation against a team that we thought we should beat, which I guess we did in the end,” he said.

“We could also say we were pretty lucky to get the win as well . . . most of the coaches were of the same opinion — we had a few things we needed to work on.”

During the game, captain Ralph stepped up with a big performance, dropping 30 points and hitting a buzzer-beater to send the game into overtime.

Despite having the ball stripped from him earlier, the team had full faith to put it in their captain’s hands again.

“He’s always had that ability to knock down a shot at will,” Joseph said.

“He was an obvious choice to have that last shot for us and then to nail a couple in overtime.

“Once Ralphy hits one, there’s a good chance he’s going to hit a couple if they don’t pick him up early.”

As the game broke down, the Giants were able to capitalise off mistakes by the Buccs, which Joseph said needed to be cleaned up going forward.

“We probably had more of a lack of execution at the offensive end . . . us taking a poor shot and them rebounding and being able to run,” he said.

“I think they had 20-some points in transition, which is double what we’d like to allow for a team.”

Part of the shot selection came with a high volume of three-point shots throughout the game — a style of play not typically run by the Geraldton squad.

Joseph said he wanted to bring those numbers down and focus on playing closer to the rim.

“Some of that was probably due to poor shot selection, not getting ourselves in good position to take shots earlier in the offence,” he said.

“I’m not big on the high-volume threes, unless you’re making them, which we were early. Then we needed to focus on getting to the basket, draw fouls and get to the free throw line, which is more in line with our game style.”

Now Geraldton are on the road again, facing back-to-back matches in Perth.

They will again be without Johny Narkle with an arm injury. Joseph said Narkle “just came out of surgery . . . he’s probably about four to six weeks away at this point.”

As they do with most double-headers, the coaches and team will focus on the Saturday game, and hope to steal a win on Sunday.

“Priority one is get the win against the Senators and see if we can steal a win against Kalamunda on Sunday,” Joseph said.

“Forcing them into bad shot selection, forcing them into turnovers, getting out and being able to run and score freely.”

Training has been focused on getting the players ready for the road, with less then 24 hours between their two games.

While still trying to incorporate their new players, Joseph said they would look to go back to their brand of basketball.

“We’re still trying to iron out some wrinkles,” he said.

“We want to be able to play up-tempo a little bit. That comes to focus on the defensive end,” he said.

“We’ve got some good players that can do that: (Josh) Braun in shooting transition, Nik (DeSantis) loves getting to the basket.”

The Buccaneers face the Warwick Senators on Saturday night at 7pm, then the Kalamunda Suns on Sunday at noon.