Lady Bandits’ import Emilee Harmon rounded out an outstanding individual effort by guiding the club to a 78-60 win over Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence on Sunday.
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Fresh from clocking up 29 points against Ballarat on Saturday night, import Harmon had another explosive game, posting 31 points.
Harmon landed 11 from 13 at a sublime 84 per cent.
Fellow recruit Kristi Mokube snared 21 points and Emma Mahady 20.
Meanwhile, Ballarat’s greater firepower from the bench proved the difference.
The Rush racked up 28 points to nine to post an 83-74 win.
“It seems to be happening to us, players are having their best games against us, so we might be shutting down their so-called best player and then other players are stepping up and shooting 15-20 points,” Lady Bandits’ forward Molly Rice said.
“We need a lock-down on those mid-range players.”
The Rush used four players from the bench with Courtney Williams hitting a game-high 18 points, while Ashleigh Spencer nabbed 10.
Williams also snared 10 rebounds.
The home team used three players, with Olivia Barber posting eight points.
The Lady Bandits trailed by only three at half-time, but the Rush seized a clear advantage with a 20-13 third quarter.
“I think our fourth quarter was pretty strong, but the damage had already been done in that third quarter,” Rice said.
“It wasn’t a lack of trying, we got into our full-court defensive press and we did get a bit of momentum there (in the final quarter), but just couldn’t quite get over the line unfortunately.”
Harmon’s haul was fired at a wonderful percentage of 61 per cent (13-21).
Harmon also clocked up a game-high 13 rebounds.
“She was unreal, she just kept going,” Rice said.
“She was buggered, you could tell she was, but she wanted to win so bad, she was getting hit defensively at one end of the floor and then going down and working hard under the basket at the other end.”
Meanwhile, it was a brutal night for the Bandits in a 117-82 loss to Ballarat.
The visitors had three players post 20-plus points with forward Marvin King-Davis leading with 28.
Guards Davon Usher (24) and captain Peter Hooley (22) also chipped in.
The Miners fired 42 from 80 in the field, at 52 per cent, while the home team had exactly the same number of shots for 33 baskets (41 per cent).
Import Lamar Mallory more than doubled his nearest team-mate with 32 points.
He also grabbed a match-high 15 rebounds.
Tevin Jackson (13 points), Rashad Hassan (12) and Deba George (11) also contributed.
