Supercats ready to take care of business in season’s second half

NBL1 clubs haven’t completed a full season since the conclusion of 2019, but the Geelong Supercats are more than halfway to achieving that milestone.

Both the men’s and women’s teams are a chance to make the top four.

The men (eight wins and five losses) sit in fifth position on the NBL1 South ladder with four different teams sitting half a game back in a rapidly forming mid-table logjam.

Head coach Justin Schueller’s team has had an inconsistent year with star players being unavailable due to various injuries and other obligations.

Examples include key forward George Blagojevic suffering a season ending ACL injury and Jack White’s season in doubt due to being called up to the NBA’s Summer League.

“We’re really pleased with where we’re at to this point and we have guys that are coming in and out of the team for different reasons,” assistant coach Josh Cheney said.

“In terms of character, this group is fantastic. For us, it really just comes down to self-belief and losing two key guys the way we have is bound to make anyone second-guess themselves.

“But the group we still have is extremely talented so from my point of view, I want us to really lock in defensively and it’s about making sure we believe we have the capability each night, regardless of who we’re playing against, to win every game.”

Guard Gabe Hadley has expanded his license to shoot in recent weeks, bumping up his scoring output to 20.8 points per game and shooting 48 per cent from the field.

Isaac Turner is the next option scoring-wise averaging more than 15 points per game, while Demarcus Gatlin follows closely compiling 11.5 points per game, 7.2 rebounds and a team high 3.7 assists per game.

Geelong’s women’s squad (nine wins and four losses) sits precariously in sixth, but head coach Matthew Paton is looking forward to seeing his team develop, saying he has access to one of the “deepest” squads in the competition.

“The competition on the women’s side is extremely tight,” Paton said.

“Our side’s mindset is very ‘next player up’, we probably play a lot deeper than most sides, we are second in points scored off the bench if that’s any indication, but our season has been really pleasing so far.

“We’ve been able to protect home floor pretty well and we know we can be competitive with top teams like Mt Gambier and Launceston.

“We just need to make sure we take care of business in the back half of the season.”

Sara Blicavs remains the centrepiece of the Supercats rotation, averaging 20.5 points, 11.4 rebounds and three assists, while a recovering Aimie Rocci has remained a scoring machine with 15.5 points per game and 4.3 assists per game.

New Supercats signing Taylah Simmons continues to be a “Swiss army knife” for Paton averaging 10.7 points and 7.8 rebounds and shooting at a 44.4 per cent clip.

Geelong resumes action this Saturday, July 9 at home against Waverley Falcons.