More polish needed for Boomers’ Opals to shine
MELBOURNE Boomers captain Jenna O’Hea insists it’s only a matter of time before her team clicks in the WNBL.
As the Boomers gear up for tomorrow night’s clash against the University of Canberra Capitals at Geelong Arena, O’Hea is confident the newlook side will continue to build following its first-round loss.
“I don’t think we expected it all to come together after a couple of training sessions,” O’Hea stressed.
“It’s going to take some time. We’re definitely not worried, maybe other people are worried for us, but I think we’re fine.
“That was our first game together as a group and the four Opals have to get used to playing with everyone else. Everyone else that has been here has jelled really well and now we need to incorporate all of that.
“There’s no panic stations, we’ll continue to get better and that trust and belief in our system and each other will grow and each game we’ll just get better and better.”
The Boomers were outplayed in the season opener, going down by 10 points at the State Basketball Centre.
O’Hea said her team was quick was review the loss, admitting a lot went wrong.
“We had a video session on Monday when we got into training, which was very eyeopening,” O’Hea said.
“It’s a lot more damning when you look at the visual evidence. Offensively it was our spacing, just getting used to playing with one another in this new system.
“We were just crowding each other and not giving each other the space that we needed to work in and we’ve definitely worked on that this week.
“Defensively we were just all over the shop and we’ve worked on that as well. Bendigo scored way too many points against us, so that’s something we need to improve on quick smart.”
On the flip side, the Capitals hit the ground running, securing a 19-point win over Sydney Uni Flames as Canadian Kia Nurse scored 26 points.
“They had a great win on the weekend,” O’Hea said.
“It looked like they moved the ball really well and played well together.
“We haven’t so much scouted them, we look at them more tomorrow ahead of Friday night’s game. It’s going to be a tough game.”
Deakin University students and staff will receive half price tickets with their Deakin ID card to tomorrow’s match.