CRUNCH TIME

Updated November 7 2012 - 2:24am, first published July 8 2010 - 10:29am

This weekend will either make or break the Champions IGA Lady Braves’ basketball season, with two wins pushing them as high as third on the SEABL ladder and two losses destroying the team’s finals chances.The Lady Braves will take on seventh-placed Knox at home tonight, before heading to Melbourne to play the top-of-the-table Dandenong Rangers tomorrow.The Lady Braves’ last meeting with Knox was a close encounter, with the Bendigo team losing by two-points in a top contest.It was a similar story the last time the Lady Braves met Dandenong, with the Rangers earning a four-point win, which kick started its 15-game winning streak.Lady Braves coach Lukas Carey said his team was aware it could not afford to lose both games this weekend.“This weekend is our season,” he said.“We’ve got two tough games against two teams that beat us by two and four points last time.“We think we can win this time around and last weekend’s game (two-point win over Brisbane) showed what our team was about and what we can do.”Carey said it was vital the Lady Braves beat Knox tonight to set up a successful weekend.“We’ve got to look at stopping Amy Denson, who was in the All Star Five last year,” he said.“She scored 30 points against us last time, so we’ll be changing around our match-ups on her.“I think the game against Knox will be our toughest game for the season because both teams know what it means if they lose the match.”The Symes Motors Bendigo Braves have the chance to go two games clear on top of the SEABL eastern conference if they win both games this weekend.The Braves, who face Mount Gambier at home and Dandenong in Melbourne, have not been in their best form, dropping three consecutive home matches against Nunawading, Sandringham and Brisbane.Braves coach Ben Harvey said the team had worked hard this week to rectify the problems in the team’s past three matches.“It’s been disappointing over the past three weeks,” he said.“We feel that we’ve now worked out the problems we were having.“We’ve started watching match tapes and the tapes do not lie.”“We feel that we’ve solved the whole puzzle after watching the tapes but now we need to out and implement it.”Harvey said this weekend’s double-header will be a defining moment for the Braves’ premiership hopes.“These are two very winnable games which we need to get top spot,” he said.“If we don’t take care of business this weekend we could risk losing top spot.”The Braves will be bolstered by the return of Adam Tanner for tonight’s clash with the Mount Gambier Pioneers. Tonight’s action at Bendigo Stadium in Marong Road tips off at 6pm.

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