BOTH the Swan Hill Flyers men’s and women’s teams walked away from the weekend with mixed results, each recording a win and a loss from their home matches against Macedon Ranges and Bacchus Marsh on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday night belonged to the women’s team, who defeated the Macedon Ranges by 16 points to claim their first win of the season, while the men’s side kept their top four hopes alive with a hard-fought four-point win over Bacchus Marsh on Sunday.
The women’s team’s 76-60 point win on Saturday evening was the first under new head coach Adam Kerr, who told The Guardian he was pleased to see “all their hard work pay off”.
“(The win) was a huge relief and the girls really enjoyed it as well, there was so much energy from the bench, even from the ones who didn’t play a lot, they were all involved and encouraging right throughout,” Kerr said.
“There were some great performances right across the court which was really enjoyable.
“It was the first time where we played a full four quarters, we played Bendigo a couple of weeks ago and they had some NBL1 players, as did Kyneton and Melton, and we were really competitive, if not winning quarters, but it was for only a half.
“It’s just about building that consistency, especially with young players still learning the game, but once we put four quarters together we’ll be tough to beat against anyone.
“Defensively we were really good all over the floor, our talls’ in Tess (Denham), Lyla (Morton), Tam (Weiss) and Meg (Rooney) are starting to pick off some of those passes and rewarding the hard work done at the top.
“Defensively we’re trying to stay in games at the start, today (Sunday’s loss to Bacchus Marsh) wasn’t so good and we need to get a little bit better at that and start games a bit better to give ourselves a better opportunity.”
After opening up a 10-point lead at half-time, the Flyers were forced to work hard after the break as Macedon Ranges reduced their lead to seven points by the final change, before Swan Hill posted the first nine points of the final term to put the result out of reach.
They were unable to maintain the rage on Sunday however, with ladder leaders Bacchus Marsh dominating the first term on their way to an 18-point quarter time lead.
Although Swan Hill remained competitive for the majority of the contest, they were unable to bridge the gap, eventually going down to the Lions 100-59.
Shaylea Kerr was the pick of the players across the weekend for the Flyers, top scoring with 20 points against the Macedon Ranges and 13 points against Bacchus Marsh, with Ava Crow (22 points) and Scarlet Grey (21 points) also among Swan Hill’s best.
It was a similar weekend for the men’s team, who also walked away with a win and a loss, with their 103-99 win over the Lions on Sunday helping keep the Flyers inside the top four for another week.
After a competitive first half, Bacchus Marsh managed to open up a five-point lead at the final break, before the Flyers stormed home with a 27-18 final quarter to claim their second win of the season, with Lachlan Gardner (33 points) and Matthew Gardner (26 points) leading the charge.
The news wasn’t all good for the Flyers however, with head coach Hugh Broad suffering a knee injury, placing the remainder of his season in doubt.
Despite this, Broad was upbeat following Sunday’s win, with the Flyers coach pleased with the way his team started the match.
“It was a great result today, we brought plenty of energy and effort in the first quarter which has been a bit of an issue this year, having not won a first quarter until today (Sunday),” Broad said.
“I think we caught them by surprise a little bit and put them on the back foot for most of the game, all we had to do was remain composed and disciplined and the boys did exactly that.
“We’ve been pretty good with our discipline, we’ve been on the receiving end of a few free throws from technical fouls from the opposition and remaining composed in the heat of the moment has proven to pay off for us.
“They (Bacchus Marsh) got multiple warnings for their bench, individual players, they even got a flop warning.
“We were still competing without pushing the boundaries or getting any warnings, it was a pretty disciplined performance in that regard from our guys.”
It was a turnaround in form from the Flyers, who were defeated by Macedon Ranges on Saturday night 101-91, with Matthew Gardner (28 points) and Lachlan Somerville (27 points) the top scorers.
Both the Flyers men’s and women’s teams will play the Mildura Heat at home this Friday night ahead of the Swan Hill Basketball Association’s blockbuster two-day junior carnival.
