The match at the Horsham Basketball Stadium will begin round six of the Country Basketball League. 

After having two double headers back-to-back in the space of two weeks, senior coach Marcus Jenkins said playing just one game this weekend was positive.

“To be honest, it’s really good but it would have been ideal to play on Saturday night to give a couple of our injured players an extra day to recover,” he said. “But we will be ready to go.” 

The Redbacks suffered injures to leading point scorer Zach Dunmore and  Jayden Wright in last weekend’s double header against Colac Kookas and Portland Coasters. 

But  Jenkins said  he would give them, along with Craig Hooper, every chance of playing on Friday night. 

Sam Cronin will also be in the mix after being unavailable last weekend.  

“I will give them till tip off to prove their fitness to me,” he said. 

“They will be named and travel with us.” 

One of the areas the Redbacks will need to improve on heading into the Hornets clash is to play four quarters of basketball. 

The Redbacks were in the contest after leading against Colac Kookas and the Portland Coasters, at half time last week. 

But it was a different story in the third and fourth quarters when the Kookas and the Coasters took control – a problem Jenkins said he was trying to get his head around. 

“We just have to get out of the slump basically,” he said. 

“We just have to come out in the second half like we do in that first half.

“Friday night against Horsham  will be a good measuring stick again for us due to the fact we got done by 21 points last time.” 

The last time these two sides played against each other was back in round two, but Jenkins said his side was up for the challenge despite the fact that the Hornets sit on second place and remain undefeated. 

The Redbacks have won one game this season to date. 

“It’s a great opportunity and it’s not just the opportunity to play Horsham, who are pretty much our closest rival, but as long as we go forwards but not backwards and if we can stem the margin below 20 points it means all the things that we are learning are starting to pay off,” Jenkins said. 

“They are a team that you can shut one or two down, but they have more than one offensive player and they have everyone that can shoot the ball and we will have to be on our A-game.

“They will be looking to go at us really quickly and  get us in foul trouble but it will be a good game.” 

Tip-off is at 7.30pm. 

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