THE Mount Gambier Lakers women will look to keep their undefeated status alive when they gear up for their first road trip of the 2019-20 Country Basketball League season.
While the round-eight clash remains close to home at Millicent’s Peter Seebohm Stadium, it will be a good test for the young team to see how it squares up against reigning premiers Millicent Magic.
After two big wins in last week’s double-header round the girls will take confidence into the clash, but coach Scott O’Connor expects the Magic to put up a strong fight.
“Millicent is a really good outfit,” he said.
“I think again it is a really good challenge for us.
“We obviously stood up well to two fairly good teams last weekend and I think playing
Millicent will give us a good test to see exactly where we are at.”
The Winter sisters will be ones to watch for the Magic – particularly Emily, who comes off a massive 39-point game – but the Lakers remain a strong outfit themselves, despite a couple of player absences.
“Emily Dawe and Sarah Nulty are away for four weeks, but apart from that we should be unchanged,” O’Connor said.
Both Melissa Russell and Sarah Faulkner will rejoin the team for tomorrow’s clash and will be valuable inclusions.
“It will add a little bit of extra experience and fill the guard spot missing with those two young girls,” O’Connor said.
“We will also stick with Tara Bryant and Sarah Ritter – we will keep them in to reward them for playing really well last weekend.”
Olivia Wormald will be another focal point for the Lakers and she will be eager to put in a solid game, not just this week, but for the rest of the 2019-20 competition.
She will want to have a strong season behind her, after this week’s announcement of her resigning with the Mount Gambier Pioneers women’s team in the NBL1 for 2020.
For O’Connor, tomorrow’s main focus will be to uphold the consistency shown in the team’s first three outings, while also carry some momentum into next round’s rematch with Millicent.
“So far we have played three games and have played our best basketball three times – we just need to make sure we maintain that,” he said.
“If we keep playing our best basketball I think we should win plenty of games.
“If we can get this first one over them, hopefully we carry that into another good win next Saturday night as well.
“But we just have to take care of business tomorrow and play our best brand of basketball.”
The game will tip off at 6pm.
