Mountaineers women aim to break decade long finals drought in style

After a decade of heartache and frustration the Toowoomba Mountaineers women are a championship contender again and have their sights set on QSL 1 glory.

Toowoomba Mountaineers player Laura Conway (left) defends against Cara Dinneen of Northside Wizards in QSL Division 1. Picture: Kevin Farmer

After a decade long drought, the Toowoomba Mountaineers women are not about to let their finals chance slip this weekend.

The Mountaineers 2013 run ended with semi-final loss on the road, but things will be different this time round according to guard Tracey Twidale.

After finishing the season in a three-way tie for first, the Mountaineers will play in front of a vocal home crowd on Saturday.

“We are all really excited about the opportunity to play in from of a home crowd,” Twidale said.

“The crowd will play a big factor.

“It’s so cool because they (crowd) don’t just get up and around it when you score, they also cheer when you make good plays on the defensive end of the court too.”

Heading into the massive clash, the Mountaineers will have to shake off a 23 point last round loss to the Gold Coast Rollers, the same opposition they will play Saturday.

Toowoomba Mountaineers player Tracey Twidale against Northside Wizards. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“We played a very uncharacteristic game (against Rollers),” Twidale said.

“We were on the backfoot early and we were never able to regain the momentum.

“Rollers had three very good shooters that got hot.

“We didn’t meet our standards.”

The veteran guard acknowledged that the performance against Rollers was not up to par and her side needs to tighten up in a number of areas if they want to win.

“We were ball-watching last round and as a result, we were caught out of position in defence,” Twidale said.

“We will need to close down their scorers and disrupt their flow, we also need to make sure we do not get beaten on the first dribble.

“We definitely feel confident heading into the game as we know we have the ability and the talent to get the win, but we are very aware that if we come out expecting the win, we will get defeated rather easily.”

The game will be played at the USQ Clive Berghofer Arena, starting at 5pm, Saturday 8, July.