A DOMINANT third quarter performance from Mark Willis proved the catalyst for the Dubbo Rams scoring their second win of the 2014 Waratah League season on Saturday night.
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The Rams came from behind to defeat the Bathurst Goldminers 89-81 at the Wool Shed, with Willis scoring 24 points.
Fourteen of those came in the third quarter as the Rams overturned an eight-point deficit to take a 66-61 lead into the final term.
Bathurst started the match strongly, with gun scorer Will Ozolins continuing his hot streak as the visitors outscored the Rams 23-20 in the first term.
They continued their good start by piling on another 23 points in the second term to take a 46-38 lead into the main break.
But the Rams came alive in the third term, with Willis proving almost impossible to stop and receiving solid support from Matt Buckley, Brian Amos and Bart Sykes.
Taking a lead into the last quarter the Rams kept up their aggressive offence, constantly getting the ball into the key for short-range shots.
To Bathurst's credit they never gave up, and were let down by poor free-throw shooting at times, but in the end Dubbo took the final term 23-20 to run out eight-point winners.
Aside from Willis, Buckley dropped 17 points, Amos had 15 and Sykes 11 as the Rams covered the loss of skipper Tye Forrester and Dan Medway.
Unfortunately though, Sykes picked up a technical foul during the match and will incur a suspension as it was his third of the season.
"It was a good win. I thought all the boys did a job and that's what we've based ourselves on all season," coach Jay Forrester said after the match.
"Our first half wasn't great but I think half-time came at the right time for us, and we were able to sort a few things out.
"With Dan and Tye out Mark was one of our go-to guys and he really delivered in the third quarter and the other guys all picked up as well.
"I thought Aaron Hutchins was great as well. He played a lot of minutes and was the guy who brought the ball up-court and he did a really good job."
Due to the circumstances, Forrester was also able to get some senior minutes into youngsters Nick Conte and Shayne Dallinger, which he said will help the franchise in the future.
"Damien Reid is doing a good job with our under-18 boys and we were able to bring those boys in and give them some game time," Forrester said.
"You don't expect massive things from them but it's a chance to give them a taste of senior basketball and they're the guys that are hopefully going to filter into our side in the years to come."
o DUBBO RAMS 89 (Mark Willis 24, Matt Buckley 17, Brian Amos 15, Bart Sykes 11, Damien Reid 10, Chris Spinner 9, Aaron Hutchins 3) def BATHURST GOLDMINERS 81 (Will Ozolins 36, B Falke 13, E Corben 8, T Ozolins 7, M Chapman 7, J Bennett 6, D Barnett 4)