Basketball
17 October, 2025
Hornets teams buzzing for round three
Both the men’s and women’s Horsham Hornets sides return to action in round three of the Country Basketball League this weekend.
The Lady Hornets will have a doubleheader, travelling to Mount Gambier to take on the Lakers on Saturday afternoon before returning to Horsham to play their first home game of the season against reigning premiers Portland.
Coach Jordyn Burke said the home game will be an exciting opportunity for the young squad.
“Some of these girls, it’s their first CBL year,” Burke said.
“To play in front of family and friends who haven’t seen them play CBL before, that will be really nice as well.
After suffering a 96-49 loss in their first-round game to Warrnambool, Burke said he won’t be overreacting to early-season results, admitting conditioning and team chemistry have been key focuses over the past fortnight.
“The last two weeks have been about getting more and more basketball conditioning in, and just gelling as a team more,” Burke said.
“We've got to add layers to our offence a little bit, but that's going to come with time as well. Anything that we're focusing on, it's not a knee-jerk reaction, we will just keep doing what we're doing, try and put a body of work together, and then we can assess it after that.”
After missing the opening clash, captain Georgia Hiscock, Jess Cannane and Jedda Heard will add some experience to the side.
At the same time, Jemma Thomas is unavailable and Georgie Carberry recovers from injury.
Burke knows the side will be challenged against quality opponents while having little turnaround between games.
“We’ll probably take a smaller squad to Mount Gambier on Saturday, and then have everyone available for Sunday,” Burke said.
“Obviously, it's a hard road trip.
“Mount Gambier are always very strong, Portland are the reigning premiers, so we're going to have to make sure we've got plenty in the bank for eight quarters, not just four.
The men’s side will play their solitary game this Sunday, playing away against Hamilton.
Having lost their round one clashes to Terang and Warrnambool, coach Scott Benbow’s side meets a 0-3 Hamilton side.
Despite acknowledging it as a must-win clash, Benbow is wary of a competitive Hamilton outfit.
“We'll try and get our win because we need to,” Benbow said.
“If we go zero and three, it puts us way back from the pack.
“But Hamilton’s dangerous, they’ve improved on last year.
“I went and watched them play last Friday, and Josh Miller, their primary target, had a hell of a game against the Ararat boys.
“They play a lot differently than last year, too; new coach, new style of play, so we’ve got to be on our game, particularly with Mitch Martin and Cody Bryan missing, which is a loss.”
Benbow said the two-week break had helped the side improve on some aspects following their round one defeats.
“We had a bit of a joint meeting before the first training on the Tuesday after the road trip,” Benbow said.
“We all decided what our good was, what our bad was, and we also worked on some stuff there to beat zones a bit better, which we had trouble with in the previous games.
“But it's also just about gelling as a team, so having these extra four sessions certainly helped.”
The men’s side plays at 1pm in Hamilton on Sunday, while the women play Mount Gambier at 5pm South Australia time.
The Sunday home clash against Portland commences at 1pm.