Lady Hornets face tough task on return | Country Basketball League

The Horsham team will be aided by home fans at the Horsham Basketball Stadium on Saturday night, but coach Damien Killpatrick was not feeling confident after the break.

“Unfortunately we haven’t trained for about three weeks so I’m not expecting much,” Killpatrick said before the Lady Hornet’s first training session on Wednesday. 

“It might be one of those games I’m watching between my hands.

“But if the girls turn up and play to the best of our ability there’s no doubt they can win.”

The two sides are evenly placed on the ladder, with the Lady Hornets in third and the Supercats in fourth. The Lady Hornets defeated the Supercats by 32 points last time they played in round eight, but Killpatrick was expecting a much closer contest this time around.

He said the team would be focusing on the basics.

“It will be about getting some run in the legs as quick as we can,” Killpatrick said.

“We’re not a high shooting team – we score a lot in the paint – so we will stick to our structure and defense will be our key.

“If we can work hard and limit their score it’s going to make it a lot easier for us.”

Adding further difficulty for the Lady Hornets will be the absence of three important players, Ema Iredell, Madison Iredell and Shannon Cross.

Ema Iredell has been a key ball-handler for the Lady Hornets this season and is one of the league’s top scorers, averaging 22 points per game.

Killpatrick said their absence meant more opportunity for other players.

“It is what it is, it just means other girls will have to step up and perform,” he said.

“They’ve done it before and hopefully we can do something again this weekend.”

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With only five matches left before finals, the Lady Hornets will be hoping to quickly wear off any rust that has accumulated over the Christmas break.

Killpatrick said returning on the first weekend after New Years – one week earlier than last season – made it difficult for teams to be at their best toward the end of the season.

“Starting back on the fifth of January is crazy,” Killpatrick said. “A lot of people are going away over the break which means teams might not have trained at all.

“There’s only three weeks left in the season so there’s not a lot of time left to get it right – I’m hoping other teams might be in the same boat as us.”