The Castec Rural Pioneers are set to take the court against the Keilor Thunder tomorrow night at Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre.
After last Friday night’s win over NW Tasmania Thunder the Pioneers are 4-1 and sit second on the ladder only on percentage in the NBL1 South conference.
So far Keilor have had an up and down season as they sit 11th on the ladder with a record of 3-3.
A key player that Mount Gambier will have to stop is Keilor’s Kyle Zunic who is leading the team in points, rebounds, assists and blocks so far this season.
For Mount Gambier Nick Marshall and Akech Aliir will need to be at their best this game as they have been their side’s reliable scorers so far this season.
Two players that will need to get involved in the game early are Austin Shelley and Christian Peevy.
Although Shelley and Peevey have been having a solid season so far, the Pioneers have struggled with slow starts to the game – an area Shelley and Peevy impact.
Head coach Richard Hill spoke on how he thinks his side will go against Keilor tomorrow night.
“They have a pretty decent team, they have been a little bit up and down,” he said.
“They are the highest scoring team in the competition but their defence is a little bit poor.
“We need to defend them very well because they are averaging close to 100 points a game, if we defend them well I think we can win.”
This will be an important game for the Pioneers because after this round they have two tough away games in Geelong and Bendigo ahead of them.
“We need to take advantage of home games because it’s going to get tougher,” Hill said.
“We just need to continue to improve, we have a lot of room for improvement.”
A big thing that Mount Gambier needs to improve on this season is rebounding, which Hill believes too.
“We need to work on it more than this week, we have obviously been working on it but we were terrible on the boards to be honest,” he said.
“It’s frustrating because it’s been a bit of an issue for most of the season but we have been able to cover for it in other areas like our defence that has been really good and the offence has been okay.
“We are close to last in the league in rebounding but we are sitting on top of the ladder so it does not fit with everything else we are doing and we need to do a better job.”
