Pioneers set to win

NEW COLOURS, SAME DESIRE: While the Pioneers may be changing colour for tonight’s South East Australian Basketball League clash against Frankston, the desire to win will be as strong as ever. Pictured are players John Jones (back left), Daniel Alexander and Luke Jamieson, with McDonald’s owner Bryce Crick (front left), with staff members Stowe Scott and Tiia Pelkonen.

THE Icehouse will turn red tonight when the Mount Gambier Pioneers host the Frankston Blues in Round 8 of the South East Australian Basketball League season.

The Pioneers will don a red playing strip for game-night sponsor McDonald’s.

But there will be more to the contest than a different colour uniform, as the home side looks to redeem itself after last week’s big loss to Bendigo.

That was the first defeat for the Pioneers this season, with Bendigo controlling the game in the first half, taking a solid 36-point advantage to the long break.

From there the Pioneers fought back, but the home side was simply too strong, handing Mount Gambier a 21-point defeat.

With that in mind, the Blues will face a tough task tonight, with the home side sure to rebound strongly in front of its parochial supporters.

But the Pioneers can take nothing for granted according to coach Richard Hill.

“We learnt lessons last week against Bendigo,” Hill said.

“Frankston has had some good performances – they ran Nunawading to four points, then they beat North West Tassy, whose form is really good.

“They have only had the one win but their form recently has been okay.

“They don’t have the depth we do but their starting group is very good and will match up with us.

“If you don’t play well or you are not prepared to play hard in this competition, you will get beaten, it is as simple as that.

“We can not afford to be anything less than well prepared.

“That has been our strength for the last four seasons.”

Despite just one win for the season, Frankston can certainly not be taken lightly, with some quality players capable of compiling a big score.

Alex Francis is sure to provide Pioneers big men Daniel Alexander and Luke Jamieson some headaches throughout the night under the hoop, with averages of 20 points and 10.6 rebounds-per-game.

Hill said he would be a tough player to stop.

“His stats are quite amazing,” Hill said.

“He has shot 53 free throws in the last three games.

“Fortunately for the opposition he has been shooting those at about 40pc, but he is a heck of a player.

“He is a tough rebounder, he is athletic and I’m looking forward to seeing him in real life.

“One guy won’t be able to stop him – our team will need to slow him up.”

Another tough Blues import is Nathan Buss, who averages 17.9 points and 6.3 rebounds, while Benny Lewis has plenty of NBL experience.

He will go head-to-head with Brad Hill, which Richard Hill said was always a good contest.

And the key to the game is simply according to Hill.

“I think we need to have an aggressive mind set,” he said.

“What I can take away from last week, is we were marginally passive at both ends of the floor.

“We need to get back to being assertive, aggressive and if we do that we are pretty tough to beat.

“If we are passive and reactionary, Frankston will stick it to us.”