AGAIN the Bathurst Goldminers came away from a men’s State League road trip empty handed, but again enhanced their reputation as a side who punches above its weight on the weekend.

The Goldminers took on title contenders Canberra and Queanbeyan on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon respectively with a threadbare line-up that featured just seven players.

They suffered a 30-point loss to the Gunners, losing 85-55, before pushing competition leaders Queanbeyan to within 20 points when going down 89-69 on Sunday.

Their roster was whittled down to six men when point guard Dan Barnett rolled his ankle in the match against Canberra, ending his role in that game and ruling him out of the Queanbeyan game to boot.

Centre Laurence Mifsud almost suffered the same fate in the Canberra match, but recovered well enough to return to the court in the final quarter and play out the full match against the Yowies.

“It was tough, even I had a run on Sunday at one point because we were short,” coach Ben Slater said.

“Laurence missed probably about half of the Canberra game, but it didn’t swell up too badly and he was able to get back on before the finish and made it through the second game as well. Dan wasn’t able to get back on the court though, it made things tough but we gave them a pretty good run in both games considering the situation.”

Canberra were on top from the early stages in their game, steadily increasing their lead as the lack of numbers began to take its toll on the ’Miners.

They managed to stay in respectable territory though through some determined defence, and another brilliant performance from Will Ozolins that netted him 28 points and 11 rebounds.

Against the Yowies, who were coming off a win against fellow high-flyers Lithgow the previous evening, things could have been even tougher, but the resilient Bathurst team weren’t going to roll over that easily.

Level at quarter-time and down by just 10 at the main break, their plan to try and run around Queanbeyan’s influential tall players was paying off.

“We shifted the ball quickly and tried to get it up and down the court as quickly as we could to tire them out a bit,” Slater said.

“We were able to get two of their ‘bigs’ into foul trouble quite early on as well which was important. Our defence was excellent for long periods, I don’t think any of their players got more than 14 points.

“It was a bit frustrating that we weren’t able to keep it a little bit closer than 20 points but again, as we seem to be most weeks we were undermanned and it was a great effort to push them as much as we did.”

Once more Ozolins starred, posting 31 points to maintain his spot among the competition’s leading scorers.

CANBERRA GUNNERS 85 defeated BATHURST GOLDMINERS 55

QUEANBEYAN YOWIES 89 defeated BATHURST GOLDMINERS 69