ALL three Kennedy’s Tours Shoalhaven Tigers teams are on the road this weekend, as they look to continue their respective strong Waratah League seasons.
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Both the division one men’s and women’s sides will head to Wagga Wagga’s Bolton Park Sports Stadium on Saturday – which is one the hardest venues to play in the whole competition.
First to hit the court in Wagga will be Ken Arthur’s women’s side, who have already defeated the Blaze (62-52) this season.
But since that opening round victory, the women have split their two matches 2-2, including a last up loss to Maitland 98-38.
Making the task even tougher for Arthur’s troops, who currently sit in third on the ladder, is that they will have to play without injured guard Olivia Patterson.
Following the women’s clash at 5pm, will be the battle between Ian Ozolins men’s team and the Heat.
Ozolins, who’s team currently sit in fifth with a 5-5 record, will be looking for redemption against the Heat, who defeated the black and gold on their home court 88-75 on March 24.
“The boys are looking to bounce back on two accounts – extracting revenge from our earlier loss to Wagga but also rebounding from last week’s poor showing against Queanbeyan,” Ozolins said.
“Last week, we couldn’t have shot any worse than we did in the first half – so the boys know it’s on them to turn it around on the court this week.
“”When we lost to Wagga in round two, their shooters killed us, so we need to make sure we carry a hand on shooters and be in the lanes to disrupt their offensive flow.”
Thankfully, coach Ozolins welcomes star swingman Bruce Ozolins back into the squad, following a two-week suspension.
“Having Bruce back in the line up should galvanise our offence, as he is an energiser bunny on the court,” coach Ozolins said.
“We are going to need to be on our games from the start otherwise their hostile fans will give it to us.
“In the past, the best way to ignore all that is to concentrate on playing our own game and that’s what I’m going to emphasise to the boys.”
The final Tigers team, Scott Balsar’s division two youth men’s side, will travel to the Hills Basketball Stadium on Saturday, to play the Hills Hornets from 6pm.
Balsar’s squad, who currently sit in first with a 13-1 record, expect to get every other team’s best performance each week.
“Being on top of the ladder, every team wants to knock us off and this week’s no different,” Balsar said.
“It’s important we keep this rolling.”
