BASKETBALL
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Paul Jobber
LANCE Guild, Reno French and Josh Smith led the way as Port Macquarie Dolphins got the monkey off the back with a comfortable 81-63 victory over Maitland Mustangs on Saturday.
The 18-point win was the Dolphins first of the season and reinforced what coach Mark Champion said last week - they’re heading in the right direction.
It’s already been a challenging season for the new, youthful and exuberant faces in the Dolphins side.
But on Saturday afternoon most things clicked and when the Mustangs started to change tactics during the game it was obvious the Dolphins were going to have their day.
“We didn’t get off to a quick start, but neither did they and once we got used to their zone tactics it made it pretty easy in the end,” Champion said.
“We faced a lot of that last year because teams couldn’t match us so when they changed their tactics we knew we were going well. It was good to see that again this year.”
Guild top scored with 26 points, French contributed 15 and Smith scored 12 as the Dolphins ran away with the win.
Champion said it was pleasing to have a match where all of the players contributed in their own way.
“Our depth has been a bit of a problem for us this year, but we’re building better depth and had nine players contribute.”
While Champion was pleased to get the elusive first win of the season out of the way there was still room for improvement.
“We still have flat patches throughout games and we had some of them on Saturday so we’ve got to get rid of them,” he said.
“In saying that the boys will get that confidence now knowing they can match it with these other teams.”