Meteors blow Maroochydore away
THE McDonald’s Meteors swept aside Maroochydore on the back of a powerhouse 40 point opening quarter in their QBL State Championship contest at Candlestick Park on Saturday night.
It laid the foundations for a decisive 85-49 triumph.
“Definitely, the offence was flowing ... we were getting through what we needed to do,” coach Grant Kruger said.
“We played really good defence as well.”
While the Meteors adopted a cautious approach to injured duo Matt Gange and Peter Duck, they welcomed back Rhys Martin from national team duties.
Significantly Martin scored the first points for the home team and then set up Brad Rasmussen for another two.
Within the blink of an eye the Meteors were out to a 12-2 lead after a three-pointer by Tim Coenraad.
By quarter time the contest was virtually over as the Meteors held a 40-22 advantage.
Martin and Coenraad were the principal architects during this scoring spree for the Meteors with 13 points apiece.
The Meteors then backed this up with a solid defensive performance in the second quarter in which the Clippers were contained to just six points.
“When you get guys playing defence out there like that, that’s what definitely wins games for us,” Kruger said.
“It enabled us to play a lot of the younger guys as well.
“That was valuable with what is coming up with our games.”
The fourth placed Meteors will now prepare for a demanding triple header road trip this weekend.
Kruger described Saturday night’s win as “a great team effort”.
“Everybody stepped up ... we had players playing out of position and they really did a good job for us,” he said.
“Timmy and Rhys showed their superiority scoring wise, but everybody else contributed where we needed for the team which is rebounding and defence.”
The Meteors held a 42 point buffer at three-quarter time, which allowed Kruger to fully utilise his bench.
While Martin finished his night early, he still accumulated a game-high 26 points.
Coenraad (17) was another influential contributor.
Importantly for the Meteors, they spread the workload with nine other players chipping in with points.
Malakai Mitchell was Maroochydore’s leading scorer with 14 points.
Michael Goff scored two early three-pointers, but like his teammates was well contained for the rest of the match.
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