The Castec Rural Pioneers have another back to back road trip this weekend as they head into the back half of the 2024 NBL1 South conference season.
The Pioneers will travel to Kilsyth to take on the Kilsyth Cobras on Saturday night then on to Diamond Valley to take the court against the Diamond Valley Eagles on Sunday afternoon.
Mount Gambier now sits third on the ladder with a record of 10-4, following a win over Keilor last week.
Kilsyth has not had the best season, sitting 18th with a record of 3-11.
The Cobras have not been much of a high scoring team, only averaging 78.64 points per game with their leading scorer Adrian Tomada averaging 16.36 PPG.
Pioneers Head Coach Richard Hill believes his side should be well matched against Kilsyth’s roster.
“Kilsyth have got a bunch of Australians that are good players and are very well coached so them on their home court is going to be very tough regardless, but they do not have the same talent level as some of the other teams have, so if we play well we should win,” Hill said.
On Sunday the Pioneers take on the Diamond Valley Eagles which should be another tough away game.
The Eagles are only one spot higher than Kilsyth on the ladder with a slightly better record of 4-9.
Diamond Valley has some dominant scorers on its roster including US import Bryton Hobbs who is averaging 20.75 PPG and 5.75 APG and their latest signing Ngor Manyang who dropped 22 points in his first game.
Hill said Diamond Valley would prove a tough side to play despite their spot on the ladder.
“With Diamond Valley you look on the ladder and see they’re not very good but they have just come off beating Knox and Eltham two weeks in a row and they lost to Ballarat who are top by two points the week before that,” he said.
“Their team has changed, they have added a new import, they have made a massive amount of adjustments and they are probably close to a full team in the competition at the moment with playing three top teams and beating two of them and losing to the other one by two points on their home court so that’s going to be very, very tough that game I would think.”
