FOR the first 19 weeks of the South East Australian Basketball League season the Bendigo Lady Braves were the hunters.
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The Lady Braves had a sluggish start and at one point were no certainties to make the women’s south conference finals.
In the second half of the season the Lady Braves clicked, storming home to finish second on the ladder.
An impressive semi-final win over the Kilsyth Lady Cobras earned the Lady Braves a home grand final.
For the first time this season title favouritism and expectation sits fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the Lady Braves – all of a sudden the hunters have become the hunted.
While he’s confident his side will play well against Kilsyth in Saturday night’s grand final, Lady Braves coach Jonathan Goodman played down the favouritism tag.
“Given Kilsyth beat us by 30 points in Bendigo earlier this year, and they’re coming back to our house to play, I think we can play the underdog tag,’’ Goodman said.
“Kilsyth are a very talented group and they were on top of the ladder most of the season for a reason.
“It was nice for us to pinch the home grand final off them, but I’m sure they’ll come back at us hard.
“We have been really good of late because we’re getting strong contributions from everyone.
“We’re not relying on one person. We’re confident of putting together our best foot forward on Saturday night.”
The secret to success for the Lady Braves on Saturday revolves around defence.
Kilsyth has arguably the most potent outside shooting brigade in the SEABL. Only three times this season the Cobras have been restricted to less than 68 points – all defeats. Two of those three games were against Bendigo.
“We’ve focused heavily on defence this week,’’ Goodman said. “Kilsyth has great shooters, but they’re also more than capable inside.”
With starting forwards Stacia Robertson and Steph Bairstow out injured, the Lady Braves’ frontcourt centres around Opals squad member Elyse Penaluna.
“I thought we’ve lacked an inside presence in the last couple of years, so I thought recruiting Bairstow and Robertson to play alongside Penaluna mitigated that problem,’’ Goodman said.
“With Robertson and Bairstow out it’s back to a game of roulette again.”
The winner of the south conference final qualifies for the SEABL championship game on September 12 at Dandenong.
Saturday night’s game starts at 7pm at Bendigo Stadium. Tickets are still available at the Bendigo Stadium box office.