Tornadoes coach Dean Brebner said the 83-80 win at Terang Stadium was a valuable boost of confidence, but won’t be surprised to see a different game from the Hornets in the final.

“They played a lot of their bench the other night, so you don’t know if they’re resting players or being strategic,” he said. “They played a scrappy game. We were happy to get the win.

“You take little bits and pieces (out of the game), but finals are a whole different kettle of fish.

“Especially in a young league, it brings some excitement and some nerves. It’s a do-or-die scenario.”

The Hornets took a slight lead early in Saturday night’s final regular season game, but the Tornadoes soon took charge, leading 25-18 at quarter-time.

By half-time, the lead was out to 16 points, but a bigger second half saw the visitors wrest momentum away from Terang in the third period, and claw back the deficit in the fourth.

“We’ve got a couple of things to work on this week,” Brebner said.

“We played really well in the first half. The second half, we sort of came out and died off a little bit.”

Scott Judd led all scorers for the game, draining 17 points, while Tornadoes teammates Justin Wallace (14), Dylan Payne (13) and Brebner (13) all reached double-figures.

Every Tornado got in on the scoring as the team rotated through its whole bench.

Brebner lauded the all-in approach of the team.

“We were playing very well as a team with moving the ball,” he said.

“We were moving the ball fairly quickly and efficiently.

“I think that’ll be a key for next week’s game: just playing together well as a team, which we’ve been doing really well the past few weeks.”

The Tornadoes expect to be missing “one or two” players from their full-strength line-up, but Brebner backed the depth of his roster to cover the absences.

“I’ll try to really instill some confidence in my players – we’ve done well all year, so there’s nothing we have to change,” he said.

“I think we have a pretty strong roster and a pretty deep roster.

“We played everyone (Saturday) night. I think everyone came out and did a job.”

Brebner thanked all those who have helped Terang Tornadoes over the course of the season, in particular Michael Payne.