The Ballarat Miners co-captain made his biggest scoring haul for the South East Australian Basketball League season with 35 points in an eight-point win against Canberra.

Booker’s tally boosts his season scoring average to 25.7 points.

Miners coach Eric Hayes said there was more to Booker’s game than his sharp shooting that impressed – Booker worked hard, real hard, around the court.

His teammates followed suit.

The Miners were in dominant form but eased off the pressure late in the game, which allowed the Gunners to cut the margin to five points late.

While it never felt like the Miners had lost control, Hayes said his team should have closed the game out much stronger.

“To do what we all hope to achieve this season, we need to finish off and put a team away – we need to be doing things right all the time,” he said.

“... It was disappointing in that we had the big lead but we didn’t solidify it and do what we needed to close out the game.”

The GMHBA Miners were certainly impressive when fully firing, which they were for most of the game.

Everard Bartlett kept up his high work rate, injecting energy into the group, finishing with nine assists and seven rebounds.

Sean Massey was solid in his first SEABL minutes for the season.

Miners co-captain Kris Blicavs gave bite off the bench and, like Booker, was sharp in his scoring.

Hayes was also pleased with Casey Marshall’s efforts when called on for specific roles, and the Miners’ big guys were strong in rebounding and inside targets.

High-scoring Canberra import Nnaebuka Anyaorah was the Gunners’ top scorer with 24 points.

Anyaorah notched up nine points when the Gunners found space in the final term.

More consistent for the Gunners was former Miner Dan Joyce with 19 points – all made in the first three quarters.

The Miners are unlikely to have room to ease off when they hit the road next week to meet conference rival Albury-Wodonga.

The Bandits are quickly establishing a reputation as strong contenders and Hayes wants his players to ensure they are ready for the challenge.

“That’ll be a tough game. (Albury-Wodonga) has certainly put together a quality group of guys and we need to be well prepared,” he said.

“Pre-season, they beat us pretty comfortably and we didn’t have all our players by then, but what we saw of them on court was very talented.

“We’ve certainly got to be ready to go.”