The Castec Rural and OneFortyOne Pioneers have stamped their authority on the NBL1 South conference opening round, winning both of their double header matches in a tough road trip.

The men’s and women’s sides both downed Sandringham on Saturday night, before heading to Nunawading on Sunday where they again recorded solid wins.

The men’s side celebrated new captain Kane de Wit’s milestone 150th match with a comprehensive win over the Sandringham Sabres to kick off the 2023 season.

The OneFortyOne Pioneers women also had a solid victory over the Sandringham Sabres, battling to the end for a four point win.

The Pioneers women had a strong start to the game, matching the Sabres shot for shot to find themselves only down by two points at quarter time.

However, the Pioneers came out in the second quarter determined to take the game on, led by Miela Goodchild, Haleigh Reinoehl, Isabella Brancatisano and Imogen Rock.

The quartet set about shutting down the Sabres, dominating at both ends of the court.

They outscored the Sabres 21-14 in the quarter to take a nine-point lead to the break, up 43-34.

The Sabres came out from the main break fired up, taking on the Pioneers head on to pepper the basket and turn the game on its head.

The Sabres shut down Goodchild, who had been so dominant in the first half, and put 25 on the board to be up 61-58 heading into the last quarter.

From there it seemed to be anyone’s game.

In the opening minutes of the final stanza the Sabres seemed to have the momentum, with Georgia Pineau dominating to blow the lead out to 10.

But a quick pair of threes from Goodchild and Brancatisano made it a four-point ball game.

The Pioneers kept pushing, steadily chipping away at the lead with captain Cassandra Brown leading from the front.

Another big three to Brancatisano saw the Pioneers snatch the lead and the momentum had swung to Mount Gambier with three minutes to play.

The Pioneers held their nerve and despite desperate attempts by the Sabres took the win 78-74, with Goodchild top scoring for the match with 26.

The Pioneers women showed no sign of their tough match the night before when they took the court against the Nunawading Spectres on Sunday.

Their pre-season efforts were on display as they played a fast-paced, athletic game.

Both sides went basket for basket in the opening quarter, with the Pioneers up 21-19 at the break.

The Pioneers applied plenty of defensive pressure to preserve the lead, but the Sabres continued to snap at their heels.

A three on the buzzer from Reinoehl was disallowed by the referees, however the Pioneers finished the term up 46-41, with Goodchild chipping in 17 for the half.

Brancatisano shot from downtown in the opening minutes, while the action was fierce under the basket at both ends.

The Pioneers contained the Spectres to 14 points for the quarter, while shooting 18 in reply to finish the term up 64-55.

In the final quarter the Pioneers continued to steadily pull away before taking the win 87-69.

Goodchild topped the scorers with 29, with Brown and Sherrie Calleia on 16.

Women’s head coach Matt Sutton was pleased with his side’s successful season openers.

“We are happy to get our season started that way, it certainly was not an easy start to the season, we played two very good teams, who were very well coached, so we are very pleased with the results,” he said.

“Across the board we had some really strong contributions, I thought Miela Goodchild showed her class and led in scoring, we had some good defensive players, I thought Isabella and Haleigh played well and Imogen Rock was great in rebounding the ball.”

The men took the court against the highly touted Sandringham on Saturday night, with the game getting away to a blistering start to see the Pioneers up 10-6 in the first three minutes of play.

Nick Marshall and Jacob Lampkin led from the front, with the Pioneers up 31-23 at the first break.

The Sabres set about reducing the lead in the second, however quickfire threes from Lampkin and Marshall opened up the lead to 10, before Sandringham cut it back to seven at half time.

Early in the third quarter the Pioneers went on a 9-0 run, and the game looked to be getting away from the Sabres.

The lead opened up to 16 half way through the term, with solid contributions from Lampkin and Marshall, to take a 97-71 lead at the final break.

The Sabres came out fired up in the last, scoring a quick seven points to two, but from there the Pioneers pulled away to be up by 30 points with five minutes to play.

Marshall piled on a pair of three pointers to push the lead to 36, however the Sabres continued to fight, but it was too little too late, with the Pioneers taking the win 89-119.

Marshall led the scoring with 32, with Lampkin on 28 and Julian Pesava 21.

The men fronted up against Nunawading on Sunday, looking to continue their successful start to the weekend.

Both sides exchanged baskets in the opening quarter, with the lead changing several times and the Pioneers went to the first break up 27-24.

The second quarter saw a slew of three pointers, with Lampkin, Austin Shelley and Julian Pesava all contributing, to give the Pioneers a 59-43 lead at half time.

The lead blew out to 19 points early in the final term, before the Spectres went on a shooting spree, including an unanswered seven point run to cut the margin to four.

From there the Pioneers rallied, increasing the lead to 11 with a minute to play before taking the game 104-94.

Lampkin top scored for the match with 31, Marshall had 28 and William Mayfield finished with 16.

Men’s head coach Richard Hill was pleased with his team’s performance on the weekend.

“Sandringham will be one of the best teams in the competition, we played well but they were missing three high level NBL players,” he said.

“It’s always good to have two wins on the road.

“Nunawading put together a pretty good team, that was a high level game on Sunday.

“Jacob and Nick Marshall both had two great games each, they were both very good, across the board everyone chipped in, Julian Pesava had a good first game, Will Mayfield was very good in both games, everybody did their bit.”

The successful road trip sees both the men’s and women’s sides sitting atop the South conference ladder, with Marshall sitting second in scoring and Lampkin third.

For the women Goodchild sits third on the leading point scorers’ table.

Both sides will have this weekend off for the Easter break, before taking the court for the first time at the Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre on April 14 against the Casey Cavaliers and then heading to Frankston on April 16 to play the Blues.