Taking on a Melton side in its first game in the CBL, it was the new kids on the block who got one over on the Pirates, putting in a dominant display as they claimed a 84-45 win.
The Thoroughbreds started off strong down at Cobblebank Stadium in front of their home fans, opening up a 20-10 advantage after the first quarter.
Their dominance continued in the second and third terms as Melton outscored Echuca 50-21 during the next two stanzas to hold a commanding lead at the final change.
To the Pirates’ credit, they fought hard until the end against a strong opponent.
The result was beyond doubt at that point, but the Echuca matched Melton with 14 points apiece in the final term.
Echuca’s Staci Richardson led all players with 18 points on the night, while youngster Jobe Shanahan also had double-digit points on the night with 10.
Melton meanwhile had six players with 10 points or more on the night, including all five of their starters.
The result is a significant one for the Thoroughbreds, which claimed a commanding win in their CBL debut over a Pirates side that has won the North West premiership in two of the past three seasons.
Richardson is Echuca’s co-coach this season alongside Dylan Payne and he praised Melton’s performance.
“Melton were really good. They were a really strong team in all aspects of basketball — they can shoot, they were really good at transition defence and transition offence,” Richardson said.
“They were just awesome. They had a bunch of players score in double digits, which is a sign of a dangerous team, it means they score at any time.
“Before the start of the game we wanted to work on our defence, and I think our half-court defence was good, but with our transition D we really got caught off guard.
“I think for us the result is probably a good wake-up call for the level that we want to try and get to.
“It was good for the junior boys to get a good sense of what we are trying to do as well.”
It was a different looking Pirates outfit since the last time they took the court in the CBL North-West grand final in February, with some key players no longer part of the team and same new faces in the line-up.
The Pirates will have an influx of youth in the team this season, and Richardson said he was happy to see how they performed in round one.
“The junior players played awesome. They played aggressive and played confident and got to try some new things,” Richardson said.
“Jobe Shanahan, Cooper Mitchell, Harry Milburn and Will Poulton all did really well.
“I wanted them to be comfortable and play with confidence and I thought the junior guys played awesome.
“Late on we didn’t give up, I think a lot of the young boys especially stepped up and played hard, and it showed.”
The Pirates will be looking to bounce back in round two when they hit the road once again to take on the Castlemaine Cannons on Saturday, October 8, at 6.30pm.
Richardson said after their round-one defeat, there are certainly things his team can improve on heading into the clash against the Cannons.
“We have a lot of things to work on,” he said.
“We have heaps of young guys and heaps of guards, so I want our team to be a transition team — getting heaps of transition buckets, but also being able to stop other teams on the break.
“This week at training we will work on our transition defence, so hopefully that can shine through a bit more next week.
“I want the boys to play with confidence and I want them to be aggressive when they want to get to the basket or with anything they do on court.”
