Albury Wodonga Bandits' captain Jacob Cincurak admits the team's strong recruiting has guaranteed it won't fly under the radar after undefeated Maitland ended the Border outfit's five-match winning streak in NBL1 on Saturday night.
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The Mustangs gained a 10-point jump in the first quarter and produced a similar effort in the third stanza in posting a 113-89 away win.
"We struggled to come back from that start and I was pretty impressed with how prepared they were and willing to take away the key," Cincurak revealed.
"It's pretty evident we have a lot of talent in our team, a lot of guys that can get to the ring and cause a lot of foul trouble, they used all nine players and they fouled well and stopped us getting on a role.
"We've made ourselves pretty well known from what we've recruited and we're going to be a team with a target on our back, regardless of what our record is and all teams will be well prepared."
The Bandits' Davo Hickey continued his superb form with a 29-point game.
The Illawarra Hawks NBL player sits second in the league for points, rebounds and assists with 26.14, 12 and 7.71 respectively.
Kevion Blaylock posted 18 points, while Shawn Montague (16 points, eight rebounds) and Mitch Dance (16 and nine) also featured.
Meanwhile, the Bandits' women maintained an unbeaten start with a 99-65 win over Maitland.
Lauren Jackson posted a second successive game in the 40s with 43 against the visitors, along with 22 rebounds.
The home team set the win up with a miserly first quarter, restricting the Mustangs to only eight points, while scoring 23.
Maitland struck back with a 27-point second term to cut the margin to 10, but a 54-30 second half sealed the thumping win.
Mikalya Pivec was also outstanding with 17 points and 11 assists, while Awatea Leach chipped in with 16 points.
The Bandits boast a 7-0 start and will now play a road trip double-header against Bankstown and Penrith next weekend.
