Lachlan Onions
THE Mount Gambier Pioneers will make their long-awaited debut at Wulanda on Friday night with action tipping off at 6pm in the women’s game and 8pm for the men.
In a clash which will mark the beginning of a new era for the Pioneers, Mount Gambier will host the Casey Cavaliers on their brand-new home court before backing it up on Sunday afternoon with an away trip to Frankston.
Pioneers president Tom Kosch was eager to kick-start proceedings at the club’s new home.
“There is always a fair bit of anticipation and nervousness around our first home game for both our club and all of our players and coaches,” he said.
“We have had a couple of big days in preparation for Friday night’s game but it is all coming together really well.
“There has been a lot of people put in a lot of hard work to get to this point, so we are hugely excited about it and looking forward to bringing basketball to Wulanda.”
A bumper crowd is expected for the inaugural game at the Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre with plenty of tickets already sold.
“Ticket sales have been very strong so we are expecting a fairly good turnout,” Kosch said.
“We are hoping to sell plenty of standing room tickets for those that are not able to get seated tickets.”
Kosch is hopeful this weekend can bring positive results both on and off the court.
“Our coaches approach every game to put our team in the best possible position to win games and I know that both Matt (Sutton) and Richard (Hill) will be doing everything they can because they have a big weekend,” he said.
“I think the ideal outcome for the weekend would be a full capacity crowd at our new centre and two wins for both our women and men.
“Being able to open up Wulanda and making it an accessible environment for everyone to come to attend and enjoy our games is a key outcome so we are looking forward to that and hopefully we can grow towards that on Friday night.”
With another challenging double-header ahead, the women’s team will be hopeful new recruit Miela Goodchild can continue her impressive form she displayed in Round 1.
Goodchild racked up 55 points across the opening two games and recorded 25 rebounds as well.
For the men, Nick Marshall heads into this clash fresh off the back of being named the NBL1 South men’s player of the round after an impressive double-header where he scored 60 points with eight assists and 12 rebounds across the two games.
He was supported by Jacob Lampkin who scored 59 points along with 20 rebounds in the opening weekend.
Mount Gambier’s women’s team will tip-off at 12pm ACST in their away game to Frankston, while the men will take to the floor at the Dreamstreet Lending Arena at 2pm.
