Ballarat Rush has rediscovered the winning feeling and is determined to hold onto it in the second half of the South East Australian Basketball League season.
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Having strung victories over Hobart, twice, and Sandringham, Ballarat Skoda Rush will play for its fourth in a row when it takes on east conference’s seventh-placed Canberra at the Mars Minerdome on Saturday.
Rush forward Ashleigh Spencer said the winning streak had been “really exciting” for the team, after weeks of hard work not translating to the scoreboard.
“It is a bit disheartening when all of our hard work doesn’t pay off, so it’s nice to finally get the results that we are after – it is a confidence boost,” Spencer said.
“We’ve proven (this season) that we can play with these teams that we’ve been losing against, we just have these tiny lapses and they take the game away from us.”
Spencer said the difference in the past three games had been the team “weathering the storm” when the opposition had lifted.
“Initially it was really disheartening, because when teams would come at us we would fall apart,” she said.
“So that’s what we have been focusing on, just to stay together and stay focused… we can’t let teams do that to us anymore, we need to punch back.”
After winning their first game against the fourth-placed Hobart in Tasmania, Spencer said the players had been looking forward to the rematch at the Mars Minerdome because they wanted to reward their fans.
“They’ve been so loyal to us and they keep coming to cheer us on and we haven’t been able to do it for them so it was nice to get the win,” she said.
“We also wanted to prove to the league that it wasn’t just a one off, it wasn’t a fluke, that we could do it again.”
Spencer said the Tasmanian road trip was a much-needed opportunity for the team to bond, especially with Spencer based in Bendigo and Kristy Rinaldi in Melbourne.
Along with stamping out the costly lapses in matches, Rush’s focuses have been on good defence and not forgetting to have fun.
“When you’re not winning it’s really hard to find the enjoyment,” Spencer said.
“So we have really been focusing on just enjoying it, that is the reason we play, and it is starting to show through now and I don’t think it is a coincidence that we’re winning.”
Despite nine consecutive losses to start the season, Rush is not yet out of the playoff race.
“Finals is the pinnacle but the goal is just to improve every game,” Spencer said.
“We’re on this three-game streak now, there would be nothing worse than for us to revert back into our old ways.
“If we don’t get to finals but we’ve been improving each game, I think we can be pretty proud of that.”