Bishop, McPherson ready to help lead Wagga Heat resurgence

Point guard Bishop, 21, and shooting guard Bishop, 19, have spent the past couple of years in the Bandits' youth league team but have taken just one game to prove they'll be a handful in their return to the Heat.

After going winless last season, the pair were dynamic (Bishop 18 points, McPherson 13) in a heart breaking overtime road loss in their season opener against Springwood last week.

The youthful Heat led by 11 with around four minutes left, but went into their shells to protect the advantage in what was a learning curve before Saturday's first home game against Canberra Gunners Academy at Bolton Park.

Bishop last played for the Heat in 2019 and is looking forward to playing big minutes as the on-court general.

"It was a struggle for them last year but they had a good young core coming through. I thought it would be the right move to come back," Bishop said.

"I was playing mostly youth league in Albury and the odd appearance in seniors when they were short on numbers. But I had no problem with that, training was really competitive and getting to go away with them was a good experience.

"You pick your poison a bit there, you just like playing and to get minutes at the end of the day."

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Bishop said the partnership he's forged with McPherson, combined with previously forged relationships with other teammates, has made the transition easier.

"Cam and I had played together the last couple of years and have got some good chemistry going on there. We're really good mates off the court as well," Bishop said.

"Once you start playing with these guys you're not having to guess, you know how each other works.

"Transition play will probably be our bread and butter during the season. We're a young team and basketball IQ probably isn't as high some of the older teams.

"I feel like once we have that we'll be better, but until then we'll try and run teams off the floor.

"It was a tough loss last week and we probably seized up at the end, but there's lot of positives to take out of it."

McPherson said game management and avoiding 'clock watching' was a big lesson to take out of the Springwood loss.

"We'll mature from stuff like that and learn from it," he said.

"We just weren't going on the attack, they were pressuring us and we got tentative.

"We were clock watching and didn't run our sets.

"I enjoy playing with Chaz a lot. We started scoring when we played some transition and got a couple of baskets, that's when we got going."

Saturday's match tips off at 5pm.

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