Townsville Heat star Kuany Kuany is confident his team can rediscover their best form in this weekend’s crucial NBL1 North Road double.
The Heat and Flames take on the South Wets Metro Pirates on Friday night before backing up a night later on the Gold Coast against the Rollers.
Kuany and the 4-5 Heat are coming off a tough loss to Northside last week and the Sudanese-Australian big man said his team have been focusing on putting together 40-mintue performances this round ahead of two ‘must-win’ games.
“There's a lot that we have to improve on, mainly our defense, sustaining our intensity, and making sure that we finish games the right way,” he said.
“Against Northside we played really good basketball for long periods, we were up almost 20 points, so we know how good we can be. It’s just about sustaining that.
“If we want to put ourselves in playoff contention and end the season the right way then we have to go down to Gold Coast and Brisbane and take care of business this weekend.”
While the Heat are smarming after letting a late lead slip last round, the Flames come into the game high on confidence after a confidence-boosting win over the Wizards.
Import Sam Bowman continues to lead the way for the Flames but head coach Claudia Brassard was also thrilled to see more players step up and ease the burden on the star forward in their last start win.
“Sam is fantastic, she’s such a hard worker, greatest teammate ever and she comes in prepared to do whatever role we need her to do,” Brassard said.
“You see now other teams are really keyed in on Sam so every time she's catching the ball now she's seeing two or three bodies, sometimes four. But she's really unselfish and has no issues kicking the ball back out and finding her teammates.
“We've seen Chailee Ward really come along the last three games, looking for her own shots a little bit more and that’s what we need from her.
“From there hopefully we can get players like Tayla Dalton and Mia Murray going and if we can do that then yeah, we are going to be hard to beat.”
The Flames and Heat take on South West Metro at 6pm and 8pm tonight, before Saturday night games against the Gold Coast Rollers at 5pm and 7pm.
