THE Bathurst Goldminers have been given something of a wake-up call two weeks out from the women’s State League semi-finals after consecutive 29-point losses to Queanbeyan on Saturday and Sunday.

After having their undefeated season-long streak snapped in their previous match with Maitland two weeks earlier, the ’Miners were hoping to regain some winn-ing form in their last two games of the regular season on the weekend.

They were aware of the size of the challenge, though, with Teagan Burke, Laycee Covington-Gorst and Emily Matthews all unavailable and the matches looming as danger games if they were slightly below their best.

And they were.

The Yowies dominated both contests from the outset, cruising home to win 72-41 on Saturday and 86-57 on Sunday.

Unlike in their previous meeting, which the Goldminers won easily, the Queanbeyan team had the services of ex-Opals star Annie La Fleur, and although the 45-year-old is in the twilight of her career, she was still influential.

“When they came up to Bathurst she wasn’t with them, and at the neutral venue games she wasn’t playing either, so we hadn’t even seen them play with her before Saturday. She makes a huge difference for them,” Goldminers coach Jo Cafe said.

“We were missing our three tallest players in Teagan, Laycee and Emily and Queanbeyan are quite a tall side them-selves, so they were going to be tough to handle. 

“We were quite flat in the first game. There were a few illnesses and we just didn’t look switched on to begin with.”

The ’Miners’ shooting percentage in Saturday’s game also slipped well down on what has been the norm this season, and even lay-ups and uncontested field goals were less than certain at times.

On the plus side, they did manage to keep Yowies star Kristen Langhorn to just 18 and 12 points in the two games, but her team-mates were able to make up the difference regardless.

Rachel Murray led her side well, posting 17 and 14 points in the two games, while Olivia Patterson was influential in the second match, scoring 17 points.

Now the challenge for Cafe and her team is to regroup in time for finals weekend at Sutherland in a fortnight, where they are likely to play either Maitland or Newcastle.

There is also every chance that if they do qualify for the decider, they will meet Queanbeyan again.

“It was good in a way on the weekend to see what we could do without those other players there. We did have our good patches at times and keeping their main scorer to relatively low totals was a positive,” she said.

“We just have to try and make sure we’re at our best when it counts.

“We’re coming off a few bad results, but we have been undermanned in each of those games, so we’re confident we can still get the job done.”

QUEANBEYAN YOWIES 72 defeated BATHURST GOLDMINERS 41 (Rachel Murray 17)

QUEANBEYAN YOWIES 86 defeated BATHURST GOLDMINERS 57 (Olivia Patterson 17, Rachel Murray 14)