Against the Geelong Supercats, the Lady Hornets had a 25 point victory while the men’s Hornets had a 24 point win. 

The men’s were led to a strong start by Tim Pickert’s 13 first quarter points, jumping out to a 16 point lead at quarter time.

The Supercats however mounted an impressive comeback in the second term, with fourteen straight points to finish the quarter leveling the scores at 41-41. 

But the Hornets however put the foot down in the third term. Jeremiah McKenzie caught fire in front of the home crowd, hitting five three pointers in the quarter as they opened up a 14 point lead at three quarter time.

The Hornets would go onto win 90-76. Captain Tim Pickert said he was pleased to win a difficult contest.

“That’s a typical Geelong side – they are always going to be good, young, strong and athletic,” Pickert said.

The Supercat’s big men caused the Hornets issues in the first half, but a big effort from Jordy Burke and Austin McKenzie limited their influence from then on.

“I pinned it to them at half time to lift their game, and they really played well in the second half,” Pickert said.

“I thought that was Jordy’s best game he played for us this year. Our bigs really battled hard and we got on top.”

Pickert himself top scored with 32 points while Jeremiah McKenzie had 26, including 18 in the third term.

The LADY HORNETS burst out of the gates opening up a 24-8 quarter time lead in their match against the Supercats and never looked back, dominating the contest for a 71-46 win.

Coach Damien Killpatrick – who was worried about rust after the Christmas break – said he was very pleased.

“We executed basically everything we spoke about,” Killpatrick said. “There was a lot of emphasis about getting a quick start last night – the girls came ready to play and we had 24 points in the first quarter that really set us up.”

In her 50^th game for the Lady Hornets, Caitlin Story top scored for with 20 points while Faith McKenzie was the other standout contributor with 18. 

“(Story) is always underrated – She goes about her business, gets into the right spots and makes the right decisions,” Killpatrick said.

“It was great for her in her 50^th game to play like that.”

Killpatrick was particularly impressed with the performance of youngster Nekaela Butler. Butler was put into the starting lineup in place of absent star Ema Iredell and played exceptionally.

“We gave her the opportunity and she played an absolute blinder,” Killpatrick said.

“I think it was the best basketball game of her career. She played great defense, ran hard and stuck to the team rules – She just showed to us last night that she is ready to play minutes for our team.

“It’s great for us because we’re an older team so to have players like her keep developing and coming through is really pleasing.”