Bendigo Braves will have a home-court advantage this weekend when they host the Junior Country Championships.
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Under-16 and under-18 teams (Div 1 and 2) from across the state will converge on Red Energy Arena for a two-day tournament that will see the best Victorian country associations compete.
It won't be an easy task for the Braves as they will be up against powerhouse country associations such as Ballarat, Warrnambool and Mildura.
However, there's one particular club that's on under-18 (Div 1) coach Tom Hayes' radar.
"Traralgon are definitely going to be the hardest team for us to beat," he said.
Braves won't have to wait long for a first-hand glimpse of what the Traralgon T-Birds are bringing to the table this weekend as they face them first up on Saturday morning.
They recently faced the T-Birds at the Bendigo Junior Classic held last month in Bendigo where they defeated them 50-36,however, with a few of Traralgon's best players expected to be in action at the JCC it's anticipated to be a more challenging encounter.
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Hayes said the team had been putting in plenty of work at training during the lead-up, which also includes playing within the Victorian Junior Basketball League.
"We've focused on improving on what we did well, and didn't do at the classic in both our defence and offence," Hayes said.
"We want to improve as a team every time we step foot on the basketball court."
Hayes said the plan was to finish within the top-four by the end of the tournament, but also believed his squad could push even further and wrap up the JCC within the final two.
"Never say never," he said.
"If you aim low, you will play low.
"We know the courts well and we'll use that to our advantage."
Bendigo Basketball director of coaching Joe Hurst expected a challenging weekend on court for all Braves teams.
"It's been great to see the kids back on court preparing for the Country Championships," he said.
"Majority of our players have been training during the past few weeks and overall we've been able to iron out any bugs ahead of this weekend.
"We are looking forward to seeing how our teams perform once we get down to business.
"Everyone is in a good position to come up trumps."
Hurst also expected Traralgon to be a strong opponent this week, but affirmed that no team can be dismissed once the action gets underway.
"All of these teams have extremely strong showings at the grassroots level," he said.
"They've all been playing together from the under-10 level onward and will be strong.
"But we will defend our home turf."
Bendigo Braves have boys and girls teams competing in both Division 1 and Division 2.
The round robin stage of the tournament begins on Saturday, followed by finals on Sunday.
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