“Winning the national championship” are the words on everybody’s lips at the Symes Motor Bendigo Braves – including the club’s new US imports Daniel Horton and Deilvez Yearby.Horton and Yearby arrived in Bendigo yesterday and they are determined to help guide last season’s east conference champions to an elusive SEABL title in 2012.Yearvy, 25, recently finished a play-off campaign in Mexico, and the Michigan-based 198cm forward is intent on helping his new team-mates go one step further than last season.“Wherever you go you want to win,” Yearby said. “The ultimate goal is to win the big championship. That type of (winning) mentality the (Braves) coaches have is going to affect everybody.“It’s going to be like a trickle down effect on us and motivate us to come out and play and try to get that win.”Horton, who has played a match for NBA team Miami Heat, is on the comeback from three injury-interrupted years.The 27-year-old returned to fitness from a shoulder reconstruction 18 months ago, but missed last season in the US after injuring a ligament in his foot.The guard has a wife and two young children in Arkansas, but said he was ready to go when Braves coach Ben Harvey approached him about joining the club.“The coach was willing to offer me the opportunity to get back playing because I haven’t played in over a year,” Horton said.“It’s an opportunity for me to come and play and do well and then see what happens in August or September when the season is over. “If I have a successful season here I can get back to where I was before I got injured.”Horton said he has come to play in a winning side after previously having stints in France and Turkey with low-budget teams.“Being a winner. That’s what it’s always about with me, is winning,” Horton said.“Whether I score 20 with five assists, or five with seven assists, as long as we win you’re always going to see me smiling.”Horton and Yearby have big shoes to fill by replacing SEABL All-Star Five players Ivan McFarlin and Luke Meyer in the Braves squad.But both players are intent on playing their own games and helping the team win matches.“I really don’t feel too pressured,” Yearby said. “I just go out there and play the style of basketball that I play and just leave it out there on the court. “I have the confidence in myself to play at a high level and everybody will soon see that.”Braves head coach Ben Harvey declared getting the team to gel was his number one priority now the imports have arrived.Only Tom Garlepp, who is playing with the Gold Coast Blaze in the NBL and will most likely miss some of the Braves’ early season matches, is missing from the squad.“The next month is just making sure the team gels, the imports play a really key role in that,” Harvey said. “These guys know that (we want) nothing less than to win the national championship, but there’s a lot of work between now and then.”The Braves will play Ballarat at 4.30pm next Saturday at Bendigo Stadium and the club’s first match for the 2012 season is in Frankston on March 17.