THERE can be no understating how pivotal beating Brisbane is to the Miners’ finals aspirations.
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Both teams are on the edge of South East Australian Basketball League’s east conference top four – and are fighting desperately to break in.
Brisbane arrives at the MARS Minerdome with a winless record on the road this season but the Miners know that is no gauge for what they can expect on Saturday night. GMHBA Miners coach Eric Hayes said the Spartans would certainly be aware of that record and likely be more fuelled to change it.
When the Miners and Spartans last sparred it was a three-point ball game in the Spartans favour. The Spartans snatched victory in a 28-17 final term before a home crowd.
Hayes said his Miners were pretty well prepared this week.
A brush with the best last Sunday has given the Miners confidence of sorts. The formidable Mount Gambier pushed their way to an 18-point win in Ballarat, after the Miners had kept close and within two points to three-quarter-time.
While SEABL competition across both conferences is fairly close, Mount Gambier is the clear standout with a 10-game winning streak after its trip to Ballarat.
“In some respects, it shows we can beat anybody when we’re playing well,” Hayes said.
“We need to sustain that. The game has its ebbs and flows and we need to maintain that form together.”
Miners’ new American import Gregg Thondique continues to settle well into the team. Thondique offered Miners’ fans a glimpse at his exciting in Ballarat last Sunday, one week after landing in Australia.
Hayes said Thondique looked really good at training on Thursday night, getting used to their team, and players were getting used to Thondique’s game, too.
The Miners are also hopeful Dane Sisic will suit-up to bolster their bench this week. Sisic has been sidelined with a bad ankle injury but was cleared to train this week, earlier than expected. He trained well, moved well and pulled up well from Miners’ team training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday nights.
Guard Casey Marshall is definitely ruled out after dislocating his shoulder last round and remains waiting further scans to determine the extent of his injury.
Hayes has called on Miners fans to turn out in force to support the team.
“Hopefully it’ll be a nice vocal crowd because this is a really, really important game for us,” Hayes said.
