CAN a 20-point defeat be considered an encouraging sign?
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For Albury-Wodonga Lady Bandits coach James Ballinger it can be.
The Border outfit lost 91-71 to the Sandringham Lady Sabres on Saturday night in Cheltenham but Ballinger was still able to draw some positives from the team’s sixth consecutive SEABL defeat.
For starters, the Lady Bandits shot the ball at a better clip and were again competitive for extended stretches throughout the second and third quarters.
Maddy Plunkett returned to form with a game-high double-double of 24 points and 17 rebounds, while Rachel Maenpaa (19 points), Tenille Collins (12) and Lonnika Thompson (11 and 10 assists) all gave support.
“I thought it was encouraging we shot better,” Ballinger said.
“Sandringham is a good side but there was a lot to take away from the game.
“I thought we played really well in the second and third quarters, we got the margin down to two points at one stage.
“But then we just had a patch where we couldn’t score or stop them and it was back to 14 points really quickly and then we just struggled.
“Lonnika (Thompson) played well, Maddy Plunkett was massive, we were just one body short probably.”
Offsetting the positives was another slow start and a final-quarter fade-out, a pattern that is becoming all too familiar for the Border club.
“The slow starts are just killing us,” Ballinger said.
“I don’t think it’s a mental thing, we’re OK for the first three or four minutes and then we sort of come off.
“How we prepare, how we warm up, that stuff is what we need to look at now, be really specific.
“This week is all about showing the players that when we do our stuff, we’re good, we don’t have the talent to do what we want and that’s when we struggle.”
Ballinger said his young charges needed to understand that if they weren’t scoring, they couldn’t afford to hang their heads at the defensive end.
“We gave up too many points in the first half, 51 is way too many,” Ballinger said.
“We preach 15 to 20 per quarter maximum and we did sort of clamp them a little in the second half but we just didn’t have the points to get to 90.”