The OneFortyOne Pioneers will hit the court tomorrow night in a must win final round of the home and away NBL1 South conference season.


The Pioneers will host the Ringwood Hawks as the battle intensifies for finals positions.


Mount Gambier currently sits fifth on the ladder with a record of 13-8, while Ringwood is 12th, having won nine games and recorded 12 losses.


Head coach Matt Sutton said tomorrow night’s clash was a must win for his side, as a win with results in the rest of the league falling their way could potentially boost Mount Gambier into fourth spot.


“We have to win otherwise, pending results, we could miss out altogether,” Sutton said.


“We need to finish top eight for finals, so this is a must win, a win with results could mean we finish top four, a loss with results means we could not make it all together.


“We just need to handle our business and win and see where we land. It’s a dicey situation for a lot of teams going into the final round.”


Sutton said his side would be challenged by the Hawks at Wulanda tomorrow night.


“We will have our full squad, Ringwood has had some players in and out with injury, which has been consistent with their form, they started really strong but have had some injuries,” he said.


“They are a very dangerous team that shoots the ball very well.


“As a unit Ringwood have always been a strong cohesive unit on both ends, it’s tough to hone in on one player when they have always played so well together so we need to focus on a really good team effort.”


Sutton said his side had played well last weekend, only going down to top team Knox by three, while securing a solid win over the Melbourne Tigers.


“We were really proud of the girls efforts given we were a bit undermanned against the top team, we put ourselves in a position which was an opportunity to win,” he said.


“We feel like our girls deserved to top off their efforts with five more minutes of good game, but we were not able to achieve that.


“I think we had three of our girls back into the group who have been away, if one of those is an Opals representative it certainly lifts your talent pool and Zitina came back (Saturday night) and had a big impact on our game plan.


“I thought on Friday Zoe Hurley and Keryl Ousey had a really strong impact for keeping us in the game, given we were undersized, I thought their effort on defence and rebounding helped us to give us a shot of winning that game.


“On Saturday I thought Sherrie Calleia had a really good bounce back game, she put a lot of points on the board which was good for us and good for her.


“I thought what Zitina created for us created opportunities for others.”


The OneFortyOne Pioneers will tip off against the Ringwood Hawks tomorrow at 6pm.