THE Ballarat Miners have a straightforward objective on their longest road trip of the South East Australian Basketball League season on Saturday night.
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They need to get a win over Brisbane Spartans.
While this is clearly stating the obvious, wins at this time of year grow in value – especially when battling to be part of the play-offs.
The Miners ended a run of three losses against Frankston on Sunday and it is imperative they keep this going if they are to force their way back into the east conference top four.
Brisbane is going to be tough to crack. The Spartans are second in the east conference and with a run of three games on their home court starting with this fixture are strongly placed.
Ballarat needs to stop the potency of Brisbane’s spread, which when it defeated the Miners early in the season flowed from six players reaching double figures in scoring.
The GMHBA Miners will welcome Earnest Ross back. While he missed just the two games, Ross has been enormously important and coach Eric Hayes will have much more flexibility with his roster in Brisbane.
Ballarat Rush has been going better of late despite dropping a game to Frankston.
Success here will give the third-placed Ballarat a three-win break over Brisbane and go a long way to consolidating Rush in the finals race.
Ballarat will need to be guarded, with Brisbane much stronger than last time they met with the emergence of players like Janelle Adams and Ashleigh Karaitiana.
Joy Burke, who averaged 23.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and two blocks over two games last weekend, will again be crucial for the Rush.
She will have to fire if Ballarat is to return south with a win under its belt.
