Ballarat Rush captain Kristy Rinaldi was a solid player during the weekend’s games.
BALLARAT Rush coach Donna Rinaldi says her team came away with its “worst-case” scenario, to split the weekend, but it was enough to stay alive.
Auslec Rush did enough to grit out a one-point win against Launceston yesterday with just enough calls going its way in the South East Australian Basketball League.
In contrast, Rush dropped a game by four points to Geelong on Saturday night with calls against its favour in tight dying seconds.
No points were scored in the first six minutes of the final quarter in a tough, physical defensive slog against Geelong.
Rush played well but was ultimately pummelled in the rebounds by the Lady Supercats, who had 56 to 25, including 23 rebounds to star forward Candice Rogers and 11 to former Ballarat Lady Miner Deanna Smith.
Yesterday was just about getting the job done.
The Tornadoes fielded two key players in Sara Blicavs (25 points, 11 rebounds) and Tayla Roberts (18 points, 13 rebounds), both touted as rising Women’s National Basketball League stars.
Rush’s workload was evenly spread with Nat Taylor (18 points) and captain Kate Willey (17 points, eight rebounds) leading the charge.
Rush coach Donna Rinaldi said that while yesterday’s win against the Tornadoes was not pretty, it was still a win to cap off a big weekend.
“We knew Launceston would come at us hard and we couldn’t put them away,” Rinaldi said.
“We kept grinding it out and
hit some big baskets down the stretch.
“... All our starters had two really good games and we still had a
solid contribution off the bench.”
Rush sits marginally outside the south conference top four and will be out to secure an important win against Canberra next week.