Saturday, April 16, 2011

Crocs at full strength for semi

Posted April 16, 2011 17:07:00

Townsville will have key big men Luke Schenscher and Russell Hinder fit and ready to fire against the visiting Cairns Taipans in Sunday's NBL semi-final decider at The Swamp.


Earlier in the week, Hinder (knee) and Schenscher (elbow) had both been listed as requiring a fitness test.


But Townsville coach Trevor Gleeson said they will "be definitely right come game three".


Guard Brad Williamson (hand/thumb) has also been cleared to play, meaning Townsville will throw a full-strength roster at the Taipans.


Cairns will bring its strongest available roster, with veteran guard and sole remaining foundation player Aaron Grabau to suit up despite suffering back soreness after taking a big hit in game two.


The North Queensland rivals will be playing their fourth straight game against each other after squaring off in the final round of the regular season and, including preseason clashes, will be meeting for the eighth time in the current campaign.


The winning team will advance to a best-of-three final series against minor premier New Zealand, which defeated defending champion Perth 2-1 in the other semi-final series.


Townsville has lost five of its six semi-final series, falling at that stage for each of the last two seasons.


"We've been in this situation a number of times, especially the last two years we've been in game three of the semi-finals, now it's our time to make that next step," Gleeson said.


For its part, Cairns has already achieved its best ever season, regardless of Sunday's result.


The Taipans notched their highest ladder position of third and their game-two success against Townsville was their first semi-final win in franchise history.


Cairns will take an army of around 600 to 800 supporters to a venue where the Crocs have lost only once in 14 matches this season.


"It will be a sea of orange, the orange army is heading down the road to Townsville, it will be fantastic," Cairns coach Aaron Fearne said.


"I think the keys to the game ... we obviously need to do a good job defending Luke Schenscher.


"We need to make life very difficult for Peter Crawford in particular, but also Michael Cedar.


"Those three are really their main scorers."


Gleeson wanted Townsville to share the ball more after its 17- point loss in game two, where it made just four of 24 three-point attempts.


"We had a pretty intense video session early in the week and the boys have been outstanding on the court," he said.


He added the Crocs needed to improve their rebounding after losing 42-32 on the boards in game two and nominated imports Ayinde Ubaka and Ron Dorsey as key players for Cairns.


- AAP



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