WAGGA Heat player-coach Zac Maloney will wait until midway through the season before deciding whether the team can expand its expectations after they secured a second win of the year on Saturday night.
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After going winless in the Waratah League last season, the Heat moved to 2-4 with a 67-47 rout of Camden Valley at Bolton Park.
It was far from an attractive game offensively, but the Heat stifled the Wildfire on the defensive end to give their campaign some momentum.
Despite being without point guard Chaz Bishop, Heat shared the load offensively with four players - Scott Hare (13), Nathan Elmer (12), Maloney (12) and Cam McPherson (11) all finishing with double figures.
McPherson also performed a strong defensive lock-down role on Camden Valley's go-to player Pranya Sakya (ten points).
The Heat face a tougher test this Saturday when they host defending champions and fifth-placed St George Red (4-2).
Maloney didn't have any targets as far as win-loss records are concerned before the season began, but the signs are good they'll be competitive.
"We'll have a look at that (goals) at the midway point of the season. If we get to that point and look like we might have a shot at potentially pushing for finals, we'll re-evaluate," he said.
"Our goal coming into the first two years of the plan (after Maloney took over as coach) wasn't looking at wins and losses, but if we put some more wins on the board anything can happen.
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"If we scrape into finals or get five or six wins, it's a massive tick in our book."
The Heat chose a good match to have an off shooting night against the struggling Camden Valley, but will need to improve sharply against St George.
"That's the beauty of it, we had a comfortable win and there's still plenty to improve on," Maloney said.
"A lot of the boys on this team (St George) have been the benchmark for mine for a few years.
"The intensity they bring, and they set the standard for the style of basketball I like to play.
"It's a challenge but these are the games I like. They're quality opposition and we have to be on our game to compete."
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