THE Ballarat Miners have sounded a warning to the rest of the NBL1 South competition, with both the men and women's teams taking down top side's Ringwood Hawks in Saturday night's matches at Selkirk Stadium.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Hawks sat on top of the table in both the men's and women's competition, but neither were in the contest as the Miners led from start to finish in both encounters.
In the women's game, Chloe Bibby put the first eight points on the board for the Miners and Alex Bunton finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds, but it was Abbey Wehrung's night as she amassed 24 points, including a phenomenal six from seven from long range.
Wehrung's 24 was backed up by an outstanding inside game from Micah Simpson, who also finished with 24 points, including shooting 11 of 12 from inside.
After last weekend's close loss at Mount Gambier, the victory over the previously unbeaten side will go a long way to giving the Miners some confidence as they prepare for a double-header road trip to Tasmania this coming weekend.
The men's team was super impressive in not letting Ringwood get any flow in their contest, running out huge winners 112-81. Tyler Rudolph underlined his importance to the team with a game-high 30 points and 16 rebounds.
With Majok Majok now finding his feet in the line-up, himself scoring 16 points at 100 per cent from the field and Nicholas Stoddart playing statistically his best game for the season with 16 points and five assists, it all bodes well for the team going forward.
The Miners enter their most difficult patch of the season with five of the next six games on the road. Launceston and North West Tasmania await on Friday night and Hobart on Saturday followed by another away trip on May 4 to Keilor.
SCOREBOARDS
WOMEN
Ballarat Miners 93 (A Wehrung 24, M Simpson 24) def Ringwood Hawks 84 (D Strautmane 20)
MEN
Ballarat Miners 112 (T Rudolph 30, M Majok 16, N Stoddart 16) def Ringwood Hawks 81 (B Bridges 20)