Saints out to stop the run of the Rebels
BASKETBALL: The Toowoomba Saints are looking to build off their President’s Cup success and seek Big Q revenge on Harristown.
In what will mark the third encounter between the two sides in the space of a week, the Saints know a victory is required to stop their slide.
The sides met in round three of the Heathley Big Q League with Harristown prevailing 9087 in a tight encounter, before the Saints took home the TBA President’s Cup on Monday with a dominant 87-57 victory.
Player-coach Trevor Grieve said the Saints were able to make the necessary adjustments on Monday, and will be looking to slow the Runnin’ Rebels down on defence again tonight.
“Playing them on Sunday helped when we played them again on Monday,” Grieve said.
“We change the way we played, specifically in defence. We stopped their running game as much as we could. That’s one of their strengths that they used against us.
“If they get in the open court they can run us down and get easy baskets. We play a much more structured game as you do when you have more experienced players.
“Having said that they have some great scorers. If we do slow them down, we can’t relax and say we’ve done our job.”
Currently the Saints sit in fourth on the ladder, however have lost their past two games.
With fifth-placed Mt Crosby recruiting former NBL player Mathiang Muo, Grieve said the focus remained on getting themselves in a position to be playing at the important time of the season.
“With the finals, we don’t need to be one (seed). The teams seem to be evenly matched,” he said.
“As long as we’re in the top four we are where we need to be. It’s a case of hanging around that top four and making sure we’re in the finals.”
In the weekend’s other fixture, the unbeaten Warwick Wildcats are favourites to defeat the winless Toowoomba Mountaineers Development at home tomorrow. The Wildcats will be without Kyle Harvey after his three-game stint with the club, but are hopeful Kade Hobman will suit up.