TAMWORTH Thunderbolt women had a bad start to their clash with Newcastle Hunters in a rare home appearance on the Tamworth Sports Dome Show Court on Saturday night.
Down 59-29 at the halftime break, they finished better with a good final quarter before losing 108-61.
However Saturday night’s start was indicative of their stop-start season.
“That’s just our fourth home game,” a frustrated coach Greg Irwin said after Saturday’s loss.
“It’s been a bad year for injuries, we’ve had two season-ending injuries, and the way the draw is structured it’s been hard to get any continuity.
“We’ve only played 10 games so far and haven’t had the same team twice.
“It was also good to have more than five to start the game tonight.”
In a tough season Rachel James led Saturday night’s scorers with 14 while Jesse Brown hit 13, Emily Staunton 11 and Emma Gaffney made a welcome appearance with eight points.
“It was good to have Emma back in town and have a run,” Irwin said.
“Jess Walmsley also had her first game for us.
“She’s a very good volleyball player and I’d been trying to get her to have a game for a while.”
The Thunderbolts started poorly against the Coffs Harbour Suns yesterday, trailing 47-21 at halftime.
“We tied the second half,” Irwin said.
“Coffs shot the lights out early and that got us into a bit of a hole.”
Madison Hunt’s return was welcome and she scored seven points with little guard Aimee Diebold topscoring with 13 points.
n Full scores in Sport Details