Geraldton Buccaneers face baptism of fire in an away double-header with two senior players out of action

Geraldton’s NBL1 West basketball team have a tough ask this weekend, hitting the road for an away double-header with two senior players out of action — but their coach is hoping a baptism of fire for younger players will bring the side together.

Buccaneers trainer Dayle Joseph confirmed veteran Mat Wundenberg broke his foot last Saturday against the Rockingham Flames in his 450th outing for the side and will be out for four to six weeks, likely ruling him out for the season.

“Things go from bad to worse for us,” Joseph said.

“There’s nothing like backs to the wall and a bit of adversity to bring a group together.

“Especially for some of the younger guys, it shows them how tough it gets sometimes and how hard they have to work to maybe smell the roses in the future.

“We’ll go in a little bit undermanned, but that won’t stop us from preparing out team to compete. It’s been one of these years.”

Joseph said Wundenberg heard a pop in his foot in the third quarter and came off for treatment before finishing the game, but was unable to suit up again on Sunday against the Perry Lakes Hawks and X-rays confirmed the break.

The Buccs went down 73-91 against the Flames and 67-118 against the Hawks.

Will Galvin grabbed eight boards and six points against Perry Lakes when matched up against seven-foot Wildcats development big man Andrew Ferguson, and Joseph said he expected him to continue stepping up with 400-gamer Aaron Ralph also out for the season.

There were positive performances from veteran swingman and ex-Wildcat Mathiang Muo, who had 16 points each game and shot 66.7 per cent from the three-point line against Perry Lakes.

Youngster Tom Dobson, still shy of his 17th birthday, grabbed five points and shot 67 per cent in 11 minutes on court on Sunday.

Taine Wattie scored 13 and 14 points, while Elijah Barbour shone against Rockingham.