WARRNAMBOOL'S two basketball sides - the Seahawks and the Mermaids - want to build on winning form at home next round.
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The Seahawks won their double-header at the weekend, accounting for Melbourne University on the road on Saturday night before backing it up with a win against Camberwell Dragons at the Arc on Sunday afternoon.
The Mermaids also scored a win, downing Melbourne University on its home floor on Saturday night.
Seahawks coach Alex Gynes said the back-to-back wins were a confidence booster as they strive for a top-six finish. It improved their win-loss record to 7-8.
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"We're still in with a sniff and we're trying to build a bit of momentum now, not just with the couple of wins from this weekend but from what we've been doing through the week on the training floor."
Ollie Bidmade (18 points) was the focal point in the Seahawks' 90-45 victory against Melbourne University while Gynes (32 points) was a the catalyst in Sunday's 99-83 win against Camberwell.
"Ball movement was great. When we moved the ball quickly and made the defence work then gaps started to open up," Gynes said.
"We were finding the open man. We turned down a good shot for a great one which was really good."
Gynes, who was grateful to play in front of Seahawks' fans again, played down his own contribution.
"The boys found me, there were a few mis-matches there," he said.
"We also found James Mitchell, Ollie Bidmade and Tim Gainey."
Mermaids coach Lee Primmer rated his side's 69-49 win against Melbourne University as its best of the season.
The Mermaids' pre-game plans were thrown out the window when the opposition's most prolific scorer, Amelia Smith, didn't suit up due to a knee injury.
Primmer re-jigged his starting five and it had an immediate impact as the Mermaids dominated the first term, 22-7.
"It (Smith's absence) changed our whole set-up because who we were going to start with and who we ended up starting with after we got the news changed," he said.
"Ava Bishop was going to start and play on Smith and I then decided to go a bit taller and put Cigi Lual in as a four because they had two bigger players.
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"We could then take Molly McKinnon off a big player and put her onto a smaller player."
The Mermaids shot at 39 per cent from the field, up on their season average, and limited their fouls to 15. They dominated the rebounds 66-49.
"The first quarter and last quarter defensively was as good as you could want any team to play," Primmer said.
"We got to the foul line (throughout the game) 23 times and they got to the foul line twice, so all of a sudden we had a lot more dribble penetration."
McKinnon finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds and Mia Mills, who is about five-foot-three, had 13 points and 13 boards.
Cigi Lual, whose older sister Juina returned from a six-week finger injury, contributed 11 rebounds and three assists.
"I ended up giving our best to Cigi. She played 27 or 28 minutes, played on their big girl and held her 12 or 14 points," Primmer said.
"I just thought for a 14-year-old up against a girl who has played 200 games in the Big V and, stats-wise Emmie O'Nial is in the top category of rebounding and scoring, was unbelievable."
Primmer said Lual would become more of a threat in attack as she settled into the side.
"Cigi is a work in progress offensively. She had the opportunity to score maybe 10 or 12 herself," he said.
"She is probably taking one too many dribbles whereas if she let it go and got some separation she'd get a lot more shots off."
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