Craigieburn’s women mixed it with Mildura for the first half of the Big V division 1 clash on Saturday night, before the more experienced side ran away with the win.
In what was always going to be a tough assignment for the bottom side, the Eagles trailed by only eight points at the main break.
But from there it was all Heat, who scored a massive 67 points in the second half to win 106-60.
Despite the huge loss, Eagles coach Rod Sweeney said there were a lot of positives.
“We had a reasonable shooting game,” he said.
“Their import, Mikayla Delcastegne, had only 12 points and was fouled out of the game. Last time she scored 31 points against us, so we put a little work into how we wanted to play her and it worked.
“We couldn’t stop Vanessa Power though. She didn’t play last time we met.”
Natalie Stewart and Emma Pullen top-scored for the Eagles with 12 points, while Nicole Cameron chipped in with 10.
The loss is the Eagles 12
But it isn’t all bad news for the Eagles, according to Sweeney.
“If we look just at results, it’s not how you’d like to be going,” he said.
“But the girls are a really tight unit and we’re getting good court time into the younger girls in the squad.”
Among the youngsters to get extra court time are Emma Pullen and Rebecca Hassell, who will be the future of the side.
“We’re trying to get two or three minutes every quarter without the likes of Tilly [Natalie Stewart], Tahlia [Prestia] and Kellie [BaileyLynn] on the court,” Sweeney said.
“[Pullen and Hassell] have to play the one and two positions and they have to take it on themselves instead of passing it to other players.”
Others to benefit are youth league girls Nicola Stewart and Ella Mahoney, who have played a few minutes in recent weeks.
“Nicola has been in the team in four or five of the last six weeks,” Sweeney said.
“She wasn’t out of place with her efforts against Mildura.
“Ella is a bit of a goer. She has been playing through injury, but she just wants to play.
“Both are destined to play division 1 next year.”
One problem area for the Eagles though, continues to be their field goal shooting percentage.
Only once, on Saturday night, have they shot at more than 30 per cent.
“We spend at least half our training sessions shooting,” Sweeney said.
“The girls have to understand that you can shoot and miss shots.
“Instead of missing a few shots and stopping shooting, they need to keep shooting. Walking away is not going to fix it.”
As for the rest of the season, Sweeney believes his side will win at least a couple more games.
“We’ve certainly played some good solid basketball and our shooting percentage was far better on the weekend,” he said.
“The girls have a lot of belief that they can do it.”
