THE senior Portland Coasters teams are back in action this weekend as they head into a crucial two weekends of play in the Country Basketball League’s south west conference.

Tonight night the men’s side will host Ararat for a 7pm clash before backing it up on Sunday with a match against Horsham at 3pm.

All games will be played out at the Portland Basketball Stadium for an action-packed weekend of play.

The men’s side is coming off an impressive victory against Warrnambool last weekend where they clinched a seven-point win to close out the match.

With some key returning players in the coming weeks, including Davey Denboer who made his season debut last weekend, the side will look to build consistently across their next four games.

Hayden Annett was an offensive powerhouse last weekend against Warrnambool but with multiple threats across the court Portland will hope to work through their offence in the front court.

Tomorrow night will be the first time the Coasters face Ararat after a forfeit from Portland in their first fixtured game gave Ararat the four points.

Ararat currently sit in second place with Portland trailing in third and will be an unknown prospect for Rebel Noter’s group.

In Sunday’s match up Portland will look to replicate their round three win against Horsham where they secured the game by 10 points.

Coasters push for another defensive bout

Portland’s women’s side is also coming off a strong showing last weekend where they turned the tables on Warrnambool to claim a six-point win.

On Sunday they will face Horsham for a 1pm start at the Portland Basketball Stadium.

The team will take some confidence from the first time they met, where Portland blew the margin out to more than 20 points by the end of the game.

Despite the previous match up the side will be looking to bring the defensive pressure they built on the weekend to get over the line.

“We know Horsham will be tough but we just want to keep focusing on our defence,” coach Ellen Zeunert said.

“It really does win matches.

“We were able to bring that pressure against Warrnambool and bring it off the bench too so we want to make sure we’re doing that every game.”

Portland has seen plenty of young players step up across different matches with the defensive efforts of Lexie Petch and Millie Jennings proving crucial for the side.

Jennings has also had strong contributions on the scoreboard and pairing with Tyleah Barr and Tanielle Knight who will all look to be threats come Sunday’s game.