TO win at any sport, you need to be able to score, and for the Ballarat Rush it was the perfect way to tip-off the NBL1 South season, as its players went on a scoring spree against the Albury-Wodonga Bandits on Saturday night.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The dominant 93-61 win was set-up by the Rush shooting at over 60 per cent from the field and 52 per cent from three-point range.
Kasey Burton was a stand-out, top scoring for the Rush with 21 points at 75 per cent shooting from the field and also bringing down six rebounds, Claire Constable hit 18 points, while Alicia Froling was defensively on top also pulling down six boards.
Albury-Wodonga was best served by Emma Mahady who finished the game with 26 points, of which most came in the first quarter.
Head coach Eric Hayes said he could not fault the performance.
"I was certainly pleased with how we played, we shot the ball really well, worked well together, everyone who stepped on the court played their part," he said.
"We just played really solid throughout the whole game. They had that one player who shot 15 in the first quarter, we needed to make an adjustment on her and we did that, we held her to just seven in the second half."
Hayes said early road form was critical to the success of the team this season.
"Last season we played our first seven or eight games on the road, we started off 1-7," he said.
"Me having an understanding of that, we really needed to get off to a good start with these first three games away. It could set ourselves up for later in the season."
Other stand out performers for the Rush were Kristy Rinaldi in her 298th game who scored 13 points from over 10 minutes on the court, while Millie Cracknell was solid through finishing with 10 points and and was two-from-two from three point range.
The Rush face a difficult road-trip double-header in the next round with a Friday night fixture against Hobart Chargers and followed up with a Sunday afternoon clash with Launceston Tornadoes.
Launceston scored a huge 30-point win in its season opener against Hobart, with Keely Froling, the sister of Ballarat star Alicia Froling, helping herself to 42 points and 22 rebounds, seven of which came on the offensive end of the floor.
Hayes said it will be a tough road trip for the squad, but at least he would be able to view some footage of the two sides, allowing for some plans to be put in place for the matches.
"Obviously Keely has had a big one and so we'll need to have some plans in place for her," he said. "Hobart has also got a couple of WNBL players who are playing for them as well, so it will be a tough weekend.
"There will be some difference for sure next week, there's no doubt about that."