The Wheelkings travelled down to Victoria for their season opener and in game one, the teams could barely be split; Wheelkings opening their account with a tight 53-50 win.

The loss of the female bonus point didn’t affect Kylie Gauci’s court time; she was the best for the Wheelkings with 18 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. Craig Cannane played one of his best games in Wheelkings colours, putting up a double-double (14 points and 14 rebounds).

Turnovers were an area of concern for both teams in game one with 21 apiece.

Game two was the Ben Hodgens show as Victoria cruised to a 77-59 win to level the series. Hodgens caught fire, scoring the bulk of his points from inside the paint but showed some range on the way to 32 points at 83%. Daniel Del Toso put in a nice little cameo performance with 17 points of his own in a really good offence performance from Victoria. Their turnovers were down and shooting percentage was up and in the end that was enough to get the points.

Craig Cannane tried to keep the Wheelkings in it with a team high 18 points but they simply had no answers for Hodgens and Del Toso.

The Wheelkings will be very happy to welcome back Michael Auprince and CJ Grogan in round two. What they lacked in round one was height and scoring and both Grogan and Aurpince bring both to the team. They’ll face Brisbane, Adelaide and Victoria in a huge round two and there is no reason they can’t go three for three in round two and consolidate a spot in the top four.