THE Horsham Hornets' women's side dominated the second half of its clash against Stawell Wildcats on Saturday to start 2014 with a 50-point win.
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The Hornets had previously stalled in their past two matches of the Country Basketball League South-West division, with narrow losses to Portland and Warrnambool.
Coach Sharon Fedke said Saturday's Wimmera clash was a great win for the side, with the Hornets dominating 73-33.
"It was looking a bit close in the first half, but the girls came out strong in the second half and found their form to run away with the game," she said.
Half-time scores saw the Hornets only seven points in front of the Wildcats.
Fedke said the team's shooting let it down early on.
"Our shooting wasn't great, but it picked up in the second half and we scored 46 points to the Wildcats' 13," she said.
The Hornets have now moved to second on the ladder after the must-win clash.
Chloe Bibby was again a standout for the team, scoring 27 points.
Bibby has now scored 56 points in her three games, averaging 18.67 points a game.
Fedke said Caitlin Story also had a great game and a really strong second half.
"Other standouts were Faith McKenzie and Aily McAuliffe," she said.
"It was a good team effort but those girls were the ones who really played their best."
The Hornets' next match will be against Warrnambool Mermaids.
Fedke said the team needed to improve its shooting.
"We need to improve our percentage and continue to work as a team," she said.
"Offensively, we weren't as consistent as we would have liked to have been."
Fedke said the team was still finding its feet.
"We are still gelling as a team - it is our first season together and it takes time," she said.
"The girls are working really hard and are slowly coming together."
Fedke said the team's defence was strong against the Wildcats.
Wildcats coach Trevor Holmes said he had mixed emotions about the result.
"I thought we could have done a bit better," he said.
The Wildcats are yet to record a win this season.
"You can't expect miracles from a team who have only played four games together," Holmes said.
He said there were some good passages of play on Saturday for the Stawell team.
"We just need to polish that off some more and then look towards finals," Holmes said.