Five home clashes

The Otago Goldrush will play five home games this year.

The side will host Women's Basketball Championship games against Canterbury, Waitakere, Tauranga and new team the Wellington Swish at the Edgar Centre. It will also host Canterbury in a pre-season game in Oamaru.

This year the WBC moves away from its three-tournaments format. Instead, it will operate in two conferences.

Otago, Canterbury, Capital, the Wellington Swish and Taranaki form the southern conference, while the remaining eight teams will play in the northern conference.

The Goldrush will still travel to two tournaments. In Auckland, it will play six games in three days against teams from the northern conference on May 4-6. The finals series will then take place in Christchurch on July 6-8.

That leaves it time to schedule home and away games in between times against the rest of the opposition. Alongside its four home games, it has one road trip on which it will play in New Plymouth and Wellington.

''It's fairly exciting. Last year, we had the ability to only have one home game and it was against Canterbury,'' Basketball Otago general manager Justin Ludlow said.

''It was a great day and to draw them at home again is fantastic. We're really looking forward to it.

''It means we can get the girls in front of a local crowd more. It's something we have been lacking outside of club basketball, it's really exciting for us.''

The Goldrush will also hold a girls-only training camp before its pre-season game in Oamaru on April 23.

The team will gather next month, with Todd Marshall retaining the head coaching role.

-By Jeff Cheshire

Add a Comment