The Swan Hill Flyers Country Basketball League campaign got off to a rocky start, with both the men’s and women’s teams succumbing to the Mildura Heat on Saturday night.
But there were plenty of positives for the Flyers, who were up against teams that played off in the CBL North West division grand finals last season.
Swan Hill women’s coach Tess Denham was upbeat when speaking with The Guardian following her team’s 74-54 loss.
“The result was obviously not what we wanted, but we all came off the court feeling really positive,” Denham said.
“Our shots just weren’t falling in, despite having some really good looks, where as a lot of their shots just did not miss even though we were putting them under a lot of pressure.
“We need to make sure that we have a stronger defence, even though I thought our defence was very good on the night.
“They (Mildura) are a young side, but they are very tall and athletic and came out hard and hit several three pointers at the start, so that forced us to adjust our defence.
“They started out strong and then we had to adapt and work out quickly how to stop them.”
Swan Hill was slow out of the blocks, with the Heat controlling the game from the outset, with the home side setting up a 22-point lead at half-time.
The Flyers recovered in the second half and even managed to outscore Mildura by six points in the final term, with Tamara Weiss going on a scoring spree.
“Tamara (Weiss) was our top scorer and played really well in the last quarter and lit the court up,” Denham said.
“She was one that stood out for us, as did Ava Crow, who was sensational in her first game and fitted in at the level really well.
“She’s a great outside shooter, a great driver and dives hard on the ball and is a great kid to have in our CBL team.”
The men’s team fared no better against the Heat, with Mildura claiming a 24-point win.
The Flyers started well to hold a two-point lead at quarter-time, but the home side then took control, outscoring Swan Hill 23-13 in the second term to lead by eight points at the main break.
The Heat added another 19 points to Swan Hill’s 10 in the third, before coasting to a comfortable 84-60 win.
Lachlan Somerville started his season in fine form to be Swan Hill’s leading point scorer with 20, while Lachlan Gardner (14), Seamus Doherty (12) and Torben McFarlane (10) were the other Flyers to reach double figures.
Swan Hill will play their first home game of the season this Sunday against the Bendigo Braves, with tip-off in the women’s match at 12pm.
