'Stoked' Thunderbolts 'exceed expectations' in winning weekend

After their comeback from a long hiatus a fortnight ago ended in three narrow losses, the Thunderbolts returned to Sydney on Saturday knowing they had a good chance of victory.

With two matches scheduled for Saturday against the Queanbeyan Yowies and one on Sunday against Moss Vale Magic - both of whom are ranked in the bottom half of the ladder - the Tamworth players knew this was their best opportunity to rack up some wins.

And so they did, with one win against Queanbeyan on Saturday, and another victory over Moss Vale the following day.

"We're stoked, very happy," Thunderbolts co-captain Lily Darcy said.

"It's definitely good to get a couple of wins under the belt. And we've got a couple of days off now, then we'll get back to training and try to bring home a couple of wins in the next few weeks."

Though it was not a perfect weekend for the Tamworth women, with a 71-68 overtime loss to Queanbeyan in the second game on Saturday, Darcy said they took away important lessons and, more importantly, are improving relentlessly.

"With back-to-back games, you get a bit tired and we did have a couple of injuries with some players, so that definitely took a toll," she said.

"We're improving after every game, we're just getting better and better and working on the areas that need improvements.

"Every weekend we see some new combo that works really well for us, we're correcting a lot of our errors.

"We've definitely exceeded expectations."

In the captain's opinion, the two standouts for the Thunderbolts over the weekend were Emily Tudman, who scored 94 points from three games, and Dhalara Knox, whose work in defence Darcy said was "outstanding".

"[Emily] is very valuable, she does bring a lot of points to the team," she said.

"[Dhalara] had a huge weekend, she outran everyone in bringing the ball up the court. She was a star, and brought the ball up every single time ... she really was a big game player."

The Thunderbolts now have another fortnight to rest, recuperate, and prepare before a clash against the Coffs Harbour Suns in Coffs Harbour on July 16.

That will be followed at the end of the month by Tamworth's first home game, on July 30 at the Sports Dome against Coffs Harbour.

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