Chargers brace for huge night

Tonight (Saturday, August 10) is shaping up to be the biggest night in the Surfcoast Basketball Association’s (SBA) senior program’s history, with its two top sides putting their Big V finals aspirations on the line.

The Surf Coast Chargers’ women’s side will start proceedings with a chance to earn a berth in this year’s Division 2 Grand Final by winning against Wannon.

Meanwhile, Dave Scott’s senior men’s side will get the chance to play in this season’s Preliminary Final should it defeat Southern Peninsula shortly afterwards.

The first of the two contests will begin at 5.30pm with the latter to tip off at 7.30pm at Wurdi Baierr Stadium in Torquay.

Chargers women’s head coach Stef Grayson stated her team’s momentum in the back half of the season has put them in an enviable position to attain its inaugural Big V Championship.

“With both teams in finals at home, I would agree it’s the biggest night in Chargers history as a senior program; we haven’t done this before,” Grayson said.

“We’ve played one finals game at home, last season, which we lost by quite a lot against Gippsland, but we have never had a lead-up like this before and the rest of the club feels that.

“I expect the stadium to be pumped, fully behind us, with the community out in force.”

Grayson confirmed her side will be at full strength with the group’s nucleus of Cortney Hollowood, Amy Hooiveld and Jess Scannell extremely focused on winning its next two games.

The Chargers will also look to claim its first win against the Panthers, following losses to Wannon in Round 4 and Round 14.

Grayson was quick to praise her opponents for the challenges it has put up in their previous meetings.

“Everyone’s excited and pretty pumped to put their all into this week’s matchup. Wannon really took it to us the last time we met, and the girls really took stock in that,” she said.

“In turn, it has made the group that much more hungry and it’s clear to me they really want this.

“Trainings have been really good. There’s a lot of communication, we’ve deciphered on what we want to avoid and people we want to focus on. It’s all been super positive, and we can’t wait for Saturday.”

Surf Coast’s men’s side will look to win the season series against Southern Peninsula, following a Round 3 loss and a Round 11 win over the Sharks.