Fighting until the end
Neers up for Capital challenge
BASKETBALL: Consistently inconsistent.
That sums up the season of the Toowoomba Mountaineers men to a tee according to coach Danny Breen.
In 2019 they’ve provided patches of brilliance that would match it with any team in the competition, yet have had a number of fade-outs that have kept them to just one win for the season.
They get the chance to show their mettle against the benchmark of the competition, the Brisbane Capitals.
Heading into tomorrow night’s fixture, Brisbane has dropped just one game throughout the year, a 19-point defeat at home to Townsville last week.
Breen said he expects the Capitals to come out hungry when they roll into Toowoomba.
“We’re playing the number one team in the league that consistently plays a no-error game of basketball,” Breen said.
“They move the ball well, they’re precise, they’re unselfish and execute well.
“I like to think that we do that some of the time. They do it all the time.
“They’ve got (Brisbane Bullets centre) Will Magnay back which makes them that little bit tougher.
“Last week (against Townsville) shows they can be beaten, and we can look at what the Suns did well. (Coach) Sam Mackinnon isn’t going to take that lying down and they’ll try to teach us a lesson.”
Breen said despite a tough year, his team was up to the challenge of Brisbane, as they look to close out the season on a high.
“I’ve said this all year, but we’ve been consistently inconsistent,” he said.
“We will play pretty good basketball for three quarters and not so much in the other.
“Against Ipswich last week we played really well for the first quarter and a bit, but just fell off and got ourselves into a very big hole that we couldn’t get out of.
“It’s become a bit of a trademark for us.”
With just four games remaining, Breen said adding more wins to the tally would give his young team a world of confidence as they prepare to bounce back in 2020.
“We’re not conceding the season. We want to battle over these last few games and get more wins,” he said.
“This gives them the opportunity to keep improving and come back even better next year.
“We’ve been prepping Jordan Biggar to go to college and hopefully that experience makes him even better when he returns.
“Guys like Jason (Spurgin) have been a bit up and down, he’s been beaten up by some of the experienced bigs in the competition, but that experience and exposure will make him better.
“If we can keep the squad together, we’ll be better. It would no longer be six rookies, there would be more experience.”
The Mountaineers women have a golden opportunity to record their second win of the season when they host the bottom-of-the-table Capitals.
They kick off proceedings at Clive Berghofer Recreation Centre tomorrow at 6pm, followed by the men at 8pm.