Wagga Heat lose 95-52 to Camden Valley Wildfire in opening round of the Waratah League season

The new-look Heat squad went down 95-52 to Camden Valley Wildfire in their season opener in Sydney on Saturday.

The Heat travelled to Sydney with an undermanned and relatively inexperienced squad but Maloney took plenty of positives from the opening performance.

"I thought we went really well," Maloney said.

"We went in undermanned and were only rotating six to eight players through the game and that's where we came unstuck.

"In the first half, we really stuck to it but we just ran out of legs in the second half.

"There were plenty of positives to come out of the game."

The Heat trailed 42-23 at half-time but the margin grew late in the third and into the last quarter.

MORE SPORT NEWS

Maloney topped the Heat's scoring with 15 points, while 16-year-old Angus Lourey impressed with 11 points.

"Angus coming in, he was only going to play five to seven minutes but that was extended out to 20 just with the spark he gave us off the bench," Maloney explained.

"Nathan Elmer, it was his first game for us and he showed us really good things in defence and pulled in 11 rebounds for us, which was huge.

"In the first quarter it was some of the best defence I've seen a Heat team play in a few years. The main point was we just ran out of legs."

Maloney's big focus this year is effort and he was not disappointed by the opening showing.

"At the end of the day, (the result) is expected with what we're rolling with this year but it all comes down to effort," he said.

"Our motto for the year is that we want to be number one in the league for effort and I was happy with our effort. Now we just need to tidy a few things up at training."

The Heat will hit the road again this weekend with another trip to Sydney to take on the Hills Hornets. They will then enjoy back-to-back home games.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: