Under-14 Ballarat Miners Outplayed By Classy Knox Raiders

4/4/14

A busy Friday night of VJBL action at the MARS® MINERDOME was kicked off by the Under-14 Ballarat Miners falling just shy of a well-drilled Knox Raiders line-up.

The Raiders immediately stamped their authority on the game, as Zac Mortlock buried a three-pointer less than ten seconds into the contest.

A frantically-paced first period saw both teams getting up and down the floor and scoring quickly. Knox rocketed to nine points in less than two minutes of action before being locked down for the next five minutes by a revved up Miners defense.

Despite a sloppy, turnover-filled period midway through the term, the Raiders closed out the opening stanza strongly, getting active on the offensive glass and forcing their way to the charity stripe.

The Miners’ Jarrod Curran impressed as the game continued into the second quarter, creating his own shots off the dribble and bailing the Miners out when their sets broke down.

Knox were unrelenting with their work on the offensive boards, consistently getting second and third shot opportunities throughout the contest.

Carrying what looked like an insurmountable deficit into the final quarter, Ballarat began playing more freely. Both squads traded baskets in a hard fought term.

Ballarat’s Max Frangos-Woodhouse capped off a ten-point quarter with a spectacular three-point play which gave the home fans something to cheer about.

What looked to be the beginning of a late Miners rally was quickly quelled by a Raiders deep three-pointer, as they went on to close out the match, 51-39.

Jarrod Curran was the standout for Ballarat with 13 points, while Max Frangos-Woodhouse notched 12.

In other results:

The Under-18 Ballarat Miners comfortably took victory over Sherbrooke, 50-35.

The Under-16 Ballarat Miners narrowly lost to Waverley, 43-46.