THE Albury-Wodonga Lady Bandits conclude a thoroughly miserable SEABL season with a tough road trip to Brisbane tomorrow night.
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Having lost 20 consecutive games since a surprise win over Sandringham in round three, the Border club has been on the wrong end of increasingly heavier defeats.
Indeed, the closest the Lady Bandits have come to a second victory was a nail-biting 84-81 loss at Ballarat in round six — every other defeat has been by double digits.
But coach James Ballinger was upbeat about this weekend’s match-up, referring to last year’s shock road triumph over the Lady Spartans and declaring it was the Lady Bandits “last chance” for a slice of redemption.
“Queensland is the only state I’m undefeated in,” Ballinger joked.
“But really, it’s the last chance for the whole group to show something.
“You want to have something to hang on to from every season.
“So we just have to do something and that’s what we’re clinging to.”
With an improved second-half performance against Nunawading last week, Ballinger admitted the Lady Bandits needed to have a similar mindset and commitment from the opening tip against a Brisbane outfit that hammered the Border girls 101-65 in round 15.
“We’ll look to be aggressive as possible, like we were in the second half against Nunawading last week,” Ballinger said.
“We’ll try to get out and run and see what we can create from that.
“Defensively we’ll mix up some zone and man defences and try to create some indecision against a pretty good Brisbane team.
“It will be tough but we’ll have a swing and see what happens.
“We need to be able to weather the storm for the first five to 10 minutes, Brisbane is a team that likes to pressure you defensively.”