Warrnambool Seahawks and Mermaids both won their Big V matches

A young Mermaids side, led by 27 points from star Amy Wormald, defeated Mildura Heat 92-65 at The Arc on Saturday night.

Primmer said he was "very happy" with the victory and praised his side for posting 92 points against a zone defence on its way to back-to-back wins.

The experienced mentor praised his young brigade for their efforts.

"Point guard Mia Mills is 14 and was running the point against seasoned point guards and she played 26 minutes for six points," he said.

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"Molly McLaren has only just turned 14 and she played 15 minutes and had 15 points, hitting five threes, so when you get a kid that good shoot the ball at that clip she is really exciting.

"There is other aspects of her game we can work on and I think we can make her an outstanding player in the next few years.

"Then Cigi Lual came off the bench and gave us great energy and had six points. I thought she maybe had more and her defence was good and she was good on the board.

"Quite a few of the other girls were on the bench doing stats for me and they train regularly and they will get games as the season progresses."

Primmer said he had around half a dozen 14 year olds in the Mermaids group and was putting a lot into coaching his young troops into players capable of not only featuring at senior level but shining.

"We've got 20-odd girls training and sometimes when you are three games into the season and a couple of girls don't get a game things can fall away and they can say 'oh well we won't go practice tonight'," he said.

"They're all sticking pretty solid and I've told them all they'll get a game throughout the course of the year and put pressure on, learn the game through players like Amy Wormald, who is arguably a WNBL player who hasn't played in it with talent she has got, so you can only learn off her.

"They have to be like sponges and learn as much as they can like Amy did when she was a young kid growing up with the likes of Louise Brown and Katie Davis and those types of players.

"We've always had outstanding girls in the town and the unfortunate part is we had a two or three-year period where we didn't have a Mermaids team so there is a bit of void of kids coming through because they didn't have a women's team to aspire to but that is back and it's healthy at the moment."

Seahawks coach Alex Gynes was pleased with his side's gritty 68-62 victory over Shepparton Gators

"It was a rough, defensive game and a bit scrappy but it was nice to get the win," he said.

"If we can keep a team to less than 30 points in the first half and 60-odd for the whole game we are doing something right on the defensive end.

"Our mantra is effort and energy on defensive end and then the offence will come. The offence is still a bit sluggish given the short start to the season and lack of practice we have had in pre-season.

"We are optimistic it will fall into place."

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Gynes, who scored 15 points, praised big men Simon O'Keefe, Riley Nicolson and Tim Gainey as well as point guard Benson Steere, who controlled the tempo for most of the night.

The playing mentor was pleased his side came out on top in an early tough encounter.

"Any time finals come, and we don't want to think too far ahead, is when the physicality lifts so to get these physical games in early puts us in good stead for the rest of the year," he said.

Gynes said there was still plenty of improvement for his side.

"Keep building on our defence and if we move the ball and move on offensive end we will get good looks, which we did at times (on Saturday)," he said.

"When we are stagnant and stand then we find it a bit more difficult. That will be the focus moving forward."

After Easter the Mermaids have a bye while the Seahawks face Keysborough at home.

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