Seahawks snap streak to lodge first win of Big V season, Mermaids back on board

The Seahawks went into its double-header road trip 0-3 but returned home with two wins on the board.

"Our effort was fantastic and our defensive intent was great," coach Alex Gynes said. "We've been saying for the last few weeks we're on the right path, so it was nice to get the reward for effort."

Securing its breakthrough win by keeping Collingwood to 62 points on Saturday night, the 27-point victory was born on the defensive end of the floor, the Seahawks out-rebounding the All Stars 56-33.

"Manny Hendrix has been a potent player in the league for many years so we put a lot of effort into him to hold him to 13 points," Gynes said. "And we knew our offence was starting to click, we had good contributions across the board."

Portland's Nathan Hardingham made his impact felt off the bench, netting 18 points and six rebounds.

"His effort's been fantastic to start the season," Gynes said. "He gets to the right spots, so it was nice to see for his confidence the ball going through the ring."

Backing up on Sunday against RMIT, the memory of last round's five-point loss to the Redbacks was still fresh as the Seahawks sealed a redemptive victory off the back of a 23-8 final quarter.

"Our heart and desire on the defensive end was fantastic," Gynes said of the 10-point win. "We were down five points three quarter time and it easily could have gone the other way, but the way we responded and communicated on the defensive end was the effort in the end."

The Mermaids broke its own two-game losing streak with a win on the road. Coach Lee Primmer said Sunday's match against Western Port wasn't the prettiest game offensively, with both team's scoring in the 40s, but it was his side's defensive performance that was the difference.

"We did a sensational job to hold them to four points in the second quarter to set our win up there," he said. "We got after the ball, had 24 steals and down the stretch we were quite comfortable to finish the game out."

With Katie O'Keefe, Alana Strom and Louise Brown all out of the line up, Primmer said the likes of Molly McKinnon (15 pts and 6-7 shooting at the foul line) stepped up into the starting five.

Olivia Fuller went head-to-head with Western Port import Samantha Keltos, and with 12 points and 10 rebounds alike, Fuller arguably edged ahead in the battle of the bigs with six steals and two blocks. With the Mermaids' 2-2 record favouring their away fixture, Primmer said the goal was to win more at home, starting with the unbeaten Sherbrooke after the Easter break.

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