Defeat second-placed team on the road? Check.
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Next challenge? Beating the top-ranked roster on its home court.
Warrnambool Mermaids are confident they can topple Big V division one pacesetter Mildura Heat next weekend after accounting for Casey Cavaliers on Saturday night.
Mermaids coach Louise Brown said their 81-65 victory against the Cavaliers was “probably the best game we’ve together this season”.
It came with four players – Molly McKinnon, Carly Pulling, Lily Killey and Mahli Blackney-Noter – unavailable. “We only took nine players with a few kids and they stepped up, Grace Rodgers was really good,” Brown said.
“Abbey Sutherland played her best game of the year and Holly Greene is starting to find form and was good in the second half.”
Brown said the Mermaids’ scoring was pleasing as six weeks ago they were “struggling to score 50 points a game”.
Warrnambool Seahawks coach Tim Gainey conceded his roster needed to “challenge ourselves to do a lot better”.
The Seahawks suffered an 87-68 loss to ladder-leader Shepparton Gators on Saturday night.
“We have scouting reports and we did a good job on their imports – one had 19 points and one had 20 and you’d take that any day,” he said.
“Then they had random role players on the court and we were giving them 15 points and leaving their shooters open.
“It is about attention to detail.”
Gainey said emerging guard Liam Osborne showed promised and was putting his hand up for more court time in coming weeks.