The Athabasca Pacers loss to Vermilion last Thursday was a tale of two games.
One was the first half of the game, during which a slow start by the Pacers allowed the host team to run up the score and lead 30-6 at the half.
The other was the second half, when the Athabasca team came alive and went on a tear, scoring 26 points and allowing only nine against.
But added all together it still amounted to a 39-32 loss for the Pacers, and their elimination from contention for first or second place in the division.
“We played well once we started playing, but we weren’t ready to go at the beginning,” explained EPC head coach Pete Burden, who shouldered some of the responsibility for not having the team properly motivated when they got off the bus in Vermilion.
In fact, slow starts have plagued the Pacers all season, and the cause of the trouble remains elusive.
“We’ve done that quite a few times. We don’t play well in the first quarter.”
Whatever the cause of the early sluggishness, it was shaken off completely in the second half. In two quarters the Pacers scored 26 points, two more than Vermilion had given up in all four of their games combined. But the hole the team had dug for themselves in the first half was just too deep to get out of.
“We came back really strong in the second half, and we were really coming on near the end, but we just ran out of time. I think if we had a couple more minutes we would have won the game,” said Burden.
Though the first half may have ultimately cost his team the game, the coach couldn’t deny the positives of the team’s explosive effort in the second half. Among other things, it proved the Pacers can play with Vermilion, a team they could meet again in the playoffs.
“A lot of things went wrong in the first quarter, and we could have just given up, but we kept fighting back and fighting back. That made it very exciting at the end of the game.”
Now the team will prepare for the final game of the regular season this Saturday in Vegreville. The Pacers will finish third in the division regardless of the outcome of the game, so the coach intends to spread the playing time around and rest some of the guys in preparation for the playoffs.
“In the playoffs, the guys who step it up will play a little more.”
