Coach Matthew Paton says the Hoop City Geelong United Supercats “will have to play their best game of the year” to take direct passage into an NBL1 South women’s preliminary final.
Geelong United (3rd, 16-6) will start its playoff campaign in Mt Gambier (2nd, 17-5) on Friday night, four weeks after suffering a 95-59 road loss to the Pioneers.
However, since that night, the Supercats have posted a 4-1 record, with their only defeat a one-point loss to Ringwood in Round 13.
Coach Paton told geelongunitedbasketball.com.auΒ that his team embraces the challenge Mt Gambier presents.
“We know we well and truly carry the underdog tag into the game,” he said, “But, by no means are we dismissing the opportunity to go there and cause an upset.
“All of our preparation and conversations this week have been around coming home from Mt Gambier with a win.
“We know the capabilities of their personnel. We know some things we want to try to prevent and limit players like (Cassandra) Brown.
“They’re very potent offensively, so we’ve got to make sure we’re doing everything we can to hold them accountable.”
Geelong United was without Chantel Horvat and Monica Okoye when the two teams last met.
However, the Pioneers were without Miela Goodchild and former Supercat Zitina Aokuso on that occasion,
WNBL-bound Canadian Brown scorched Geelong United from beyond the arc, connecting on 11-15 three-point attempts on her way to 39 points.
“It’s a luxury to have an Opals squad member coming off your bench with WNBL championship pedigree,” Paton said of Aokuso.
“So, we look at those inclusions and say, “We definitely need to be better than we were in that game”. We believe we are since then.
“Ocassionally, during the course of a season, you have an anomaly of a performance – a perfect storm of someone else playing really well and you not putting your best foot forward,
“But we bounced back on the Sunday after that game and got things back on track against a fellow finalist.”
Having featured in four doubleheaders to end the regular season and facing Mt Gambier on a five-day turnaround, Coach Paton says this week has been a case of “working smarter, rather than harder”.
“A little bit more cerebral, with attention to detail and scout and walkthrough,” he said.
“We’ll have a couple of good sessions this week, but know that we need to take it towards the game.
“But, it’s a single-game weekend for us, and we can leave absolutely nothing in the tank.”
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Details on ticketing for the Hoop City Geelong United Supercats home final on July 29 or August 5 will be announced following Friday night’s game.
