Ararat travels to the nest for a Country Basketball League South West meeting. 

The sides played each other in Ararat last month during round two, a game the Hornets clinched by 21 points. 

After a comfortable win against Hamilton at the weekend, the Hornets enter the game full of confidence. Young gun Jeremiah McKenzie was in scintillating form against Hamilton and was well supported by Matt Lovel and Tim Pickert in offence. 

Coach Cam Bruce still isn’t totally pleased with his side, despite an undefeated start to the season. 

“We need to be a bit more up tempo and come out with higher energy into the opening quarter, because we haven't been getting off to the best of starts,” he said. 

“We have had some great quarters, but not at the very start and we have let teams hang around too long.”

Bruce said he has been pleased with the output of some of the younger players, such as Jeremiah and Austin McKenzie and Sam Breuer. 

“When I started coaching I wanted to get those young guys coming in and with James Hallet and Matty Lloyd gone this year we have lost a couple from that age group, but these guys have been doing really well,” he said. 

Ararat could be without the big scoring Zach Dunmore – Dunmore dropped 43 points in a 96-100 loss to Colac at the weekend. Dunmore suffered an injury at the weekend. 

“Zach is in the same age bracket as Jeremiah MacKenzie and they go through the Ballarat system together,” Bruce said. “He is a really good player, really young and certainly has a bright future.”

Ararat coach Marcus Jenkins said it would be a good test for his side.

“It’s a great opportunity and Horsham are pretty much our closest rival, but as long as we go forwards but not backwards and if we can stem the margin below 20 points it means all the things that we are learning are starting to pay off,” he said.