Basketballers set for home

Confidence-fuelled Horsham basketball teams will take impressive winning form into home-court showdowns against Bendigo on Saturday night.

Horsham Hornets and Horsham Lady Hornets will take on Bendigo Braves in early top-of-the-table games at Horsham Basketball Stadium.

If the men’s team had concerns about where they sat in Country Basketball League’s north-west conference, it well and truly blew it away with a monster 118-56 away win against Swan Hill.

Coach Cam Bruce said the victory, based on an even spread of solid performances, was impressive but also came against a side in a development stage.

“We want to continue to move forward and made a big emphasis of putting them to the sword, and we played pretty well,” he said. “But I assume the Braves, who use this competition as a feeder program for their South East Australian Basketball League team, will present a much bigger challenge. We are going to have to handle pressure and at the same time be smart about the way we play.”

Last week a variety of Hornets impressed with Matt Lovel hitting 25 points, Tim Pickert scoring 22 and others such as Mitch Martin, 13, Jeremiah Mckenzie, 11, and John Wood, 10, also getting into double figures.

The Hornets will need to be on guard if giant former Sydney Kings and Cairns Taipans development player Matthew Andronicos lines up in Horsham.

The Braves beat Castlemaine Cannons 78-54 last week.

Lady Hornets

The Lady Hornets are also in good form, having comprehensively dispatched Swan Hill Lady Flyers, 60-37.

Olivia Jones, 19 points, Ema Iredell, 17, and Rebecca Mcintyre, 13, were prominent and now also confront what looms as a tougher Bendigo team.

While the Lady Hornets performed strongly at Swan Hall, Bendigo monstered Castlemaine Lady Cannons with a 107-46 win.

Action at Horsham Basketball Stadium starts with the women’s game at 6pm and the men’s clash at 8pm.

Fledgling Ararat teams competing in a south-west conference, meanwhile, had contrasting results at Colac.

A Redbacks men’s outfit stumbled in a 56-105 result against the home-town Kookas but a women’s team broke the ice with an exciting 66-59 win.

The Redbacks exploited the dominance of Courtney Williamson who shot an incredible 42 of the Redbacks’ 66 points.

Ararat teams have a bye this weekend.