ALBURY-Wodonga Lady Bandits coach Michael Brookens has boldly declared he expects his team defeat the high-powered Geelong Lady Supercats tomorrow night.
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Despite starting the SEABL season with a pair of losses and having not won at Geelong since 2011, Brookens said there would be “no excuses” if the Border outfit didn’t topple its hosts.
Geelong has won two of its first three games and, as expected, has an even spread of scorers, led by WNBL players Sara Blicavs and Tayla Roberts at 18.3 and 14 points a game.
And its starting backcourt of Cortney Williamson and former Lady Bandits star guard Alex Duck presents a tough challenge for Albury-Wod- onga’s Ashton Eaton and Montana Farrah-Seaton.
But Brookens said he thought some expected match-ups would be to Albury-Wodonga’s advantage. He nominated small forward Teyla Evans’ battle with Rosie Fadljevic as a critical factor.
“I’m confident, I’m expecting us to win,” Brookens said.
“There’s no excuses any more. We know what we’re capable of.
“I love some of the match-ups we have. If Teyla plays to her potential, they can’t stop her.
“But still, that’s easier said than done.”
The Lady Bandits improved drastically after a first-up smacking at the hands of Bendigo last week, pushing Nunawading on the road.
But another slow start doomed them, although Brookens is confident he’d solved that by putting Farrah-Seaton in the starting line-up.
“If we stick to the scouting report, it should be close,” Brookens said.
“To beat them we need to get them out of rhythm, not allow them any good looks at the basket.
“We must trust the offence too. We didn’t enough against Nunawading and it cost us.
“We’ve players capable of making shots. They they need to trust the right shot will eventuate.
“We’ve tweaked a few things to eliminate slow starts and we’ll start Montana (Farrah-Seaton) at shooting guard to give us a more athletically defensive look.”