Central Highlands Water Ballarat Miners Rush Youth Weekly Review Round 16

The Central Highlands Water Ballarat Miners Rush Youth Weekly Review by Head Coaches.

On Saturday 10th July the Central Highlands Water Ballarat Miners Youth team travelled to Melbourne to take on the Melbourne Tigers at MSAC. The Tigers have been flying lately and were on a 9 game winning streak coming into our match. We had trained well during the week and we had good momentum gathering after our win over Kilsyth, So we felt good and believed we were a good chance to cause an upset. The game didn't disappoint in regards to a contest, it was pretty low scoring and close throughout with both teams having decent scoring runs against each other. At half time we were down 30-29. The scoring opened up a little in the 2nd half and we went in down 54-50 at 3 quarter time. The 4th quarter was wild in regards to momentum. Melbourne jump us very early in the quarter and got hot from 3, hitting 3 x 3 pointers and extended the lead out to 15 with 7 minutes to go. We used a timeout to set the path for the remainder of the game with the belief we could still win. Our small ball approach was very effective and we reduced the lead to 2 points with less than a minute to go. We had our chances to take the lead, but 2 shots rimmed in and out and our shot on the buzzer out of a time out feel just short and we ended up losing 72-70. Whilst not getting the W, there we so many positives from the game, especially our fight and comeback and desire to win, we held Melbourne to 5 points in the last 7 minutes of the game which is just an incredible defensive effort and a credit to our athletes who locked in and refused to pack up and go home early. We have been talking about playing the full 40 all year and each game we continue to get better and better at this, so we continue keep taking steps forward.

On Sunday the 11th July the Central Highlands Water Ballarat Miners Youth team host the Waverley Falcons at the Minerdone. This was a 3rd double header weekend in a row, but you wouldn't have known it, we came switched on and full of run from the get go. With our season on the line and a win an absolute must to stay in finals contention we certainly lifted for the occasion. We had control of the game early with the game being played at our pace and style and we lead 22-14 at quarter time. We'd increased the lead through the 2nd and 3rd quarters to lead 74-52 at 3 quarter time. We were outscored by 5 points in the last quarter and ended up winning 93-76.
It was another great team effort, with an incredible individual performance from Broden Collins who finished with 26 points and 18 rebounds. Broden helped set the game up with a dominant 1st quarter where he had 8 points and 9 rebounds. We could really tell that his time in NBL1 is proving beneficial to his game and we appreciated having him available for us in this game.
We have 3 more games left (2 at home), with each game a critical conference match up as we try to secure a finals spot. It would be great if we can have as many fans as possible to the home games to help cheers us on.

It was a tough weekend for the Central Highlands Water Ballarat Rush, on Saturday we travelled to MSAC to take on the Melbourne Tigers. Our first quarter was great as we led by 6 at the break but after that, there wasn't much to say as we got outscored 34 to 82 for the rest of the game which finished with the score being 51-93. Indya Hayes was our best with scoring 18 and having 9 rebounds. We had to put this game behind us quickly as we had another important game the following day.

On the Sunday, we hosted Bendigo at the Minerdome. Country rivals so these games mean a little more. Bendigo got off to a quick start leading by double digits early but we pulled them back to only be down by 7 at the first break. The second and third quarters had seen us trading baskets for most of the time, while we always were just hanging in there. We couldn’t get on a good run to minimise the early damage that Bendigo created. We were down by 11 at three quarter time, but again at the start of the fourth quarter we kept trading baskets until they went on a run late to blow the game out in the end. Unfortunately, we went down 59-78 with Millie Cracknell having 24 points, 9 rebounds along with 2 steals. The Central Highlands Water Ballarat Rush now have 4 games remaining while being 2 wins outside the top 4 in our respective division, we would love to see all the support we can get at our home games!!!