A buzzer-beater from Will Cranston-Lown has sealed a 81-79 away win for the Mustangs over the last-placed Hornsby Spiders on Sunday, May 22, moving Maitland to one win outside the top eight.
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With one second remaining on the clock, the Mustangs guard hit a two-point jump-shot.
"As I said to our guys, a win's a win, sometimes you've got to just take them," coach Luke Boyle said. "The fact that we are learning how to win and we were able to execute on that last play is a good step forward for us."
The win capped a good weekend for the men's NBL1 East side, they defeated Albury-Wodonga 91-80 at the Maitland Federation Centre on Saturday, May 21.
The Mustangs raced out to a 22-7 lead against Hornsby. In a see-sawing match the Spiders recovered and Maitland held a slender 41-39 lead at half-time.
"We should have won by a lot more to be honest," Boyle said. "We were fairly convincing in the first quarter, and we made a few changes in the first and lost a bit of momentum and we probably gave them a little bit of confidence as well."
Neither side were able to open up a sizeable lead after that, James Hunter was strong for the Stangs with 17 points and 8 rebounds while Cranston-Lown top scored with 19 points.
Billy Parsons was a standout in his 18 minutes, picking up 10 boards and scoring eight points to go with two assists and two steals.
"Billy is a great kind of an asset to have coming off the bench, we want him to be more involved and we want him to be a bit more of a threat coming off the bench too," Boyle said.
"We made some adjustments this week and moved Dan Millburn to the bench as well just to try and get a bit more productivity from that second group, which I think worked well."
Matt Gray (25) and Cranston-Lown (20) led the way at the Federation Centre against Albury-Wodonga, Gray also picked up seven rebounds.
The Mustangs should enjoy a softer draw in the second-half of the season after facing the competition's stronger teams, including playing the ladder-leading Centre of Excellence twice.
They travel to play a struggling Manly Warringah Sea Eagles on Saturday night.
"They're smaller too, similar to Hornsby, so we're going to have to do some work through the week because one thing that they are going to have on us potentially in their starting five is a bit of pace," Boyle said.
The Sea Eagles (15th) have a two and 11 record.
Mustangs cruise to win over Spiders
The Maitland Mustangs are in seventh in the women's NBL1 East after cruising to a 90-48 win over the Hornsby Spiders on Sunday.
The win was a welcome boost after a narrow 68-63 loss to Albury-Wodonga on Saturday night at home.
Shak Reilly (19), Rachel Williams (16) and Sydney Hunter (14) were among the Mustangs best against the Spiders.
"The pleasing thing on Sunday was that after the disappointment of Saturday we came out and I said let's make sure it's not a difficult day, and we went up 16-0 and it was over before it even started," coach Mark Wawszkowicz said.
Kelsey Moss scored nine points and 11 rebounds in her 16 minutes off the bench.
"She's coming back to basketball after an extended break and she's starting to hit her straps now," Wawszkowicz said.
"She's been good, strong rebounding, but particularly her passing, she's dragging the big people, the taller players, away from the basket and passing around them, which is creating opportunities for Mila (Wawszkowicz) and Shaq and Sydney."
Wawszkowicz said the Mustangs missed the jump against Albury-Wodonga on Saturday night.
"Everything that could go wrong did go wrong...they hit some big shots," he said.
"They actually had a new player in their team who hasn't played previously and she substantially added to their depth."
The Bandits led 46-26 at half-time and despite a second-half fight-back from the home side, they where able to hold on for the win.
"It's the beautiful thing about our group - they don't give in," Wawszkowicz said. "We had a couple of things in that second quarter that didn't go our way and we had to adjust.
"But to come back from 20 down and get it all the way back to three was a huge effort."
Mila Wawszkowicz (19) was the top scorer for the Mustangs while Hunter grabbed a 14-point, 20-rebound double-double.
The Mustangs have three more games with Mila Wawszkowicz before she leaves to take up a US college scholarship.
"She's really just going from strength to strength, the shooting is getting better every week," coach Mark Wawszkowicz said. "She's preparing really well to go overseas and behaving as a really good role-model for the younger girls coming through."
US import Madison Washington arrives this week before making her Mustangs debut against Manly Warringah on Saturday.
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