Queanbeyan Yowies defeat Goulburn and fall to Illawarra

The women and the men came away with a win and a loss respectively, but both games kept spectators on the edges of their seats.

The women played first, and kept their winning streak alive with a 66-58 win over the Goulburn Bears, who scared the top-ranked side with a last-minute revival.

"Goulburn are always quite well-drilled, and they surprised you a fair bit, so you have to stay on top of them," Queanbeyan captain Mae Grant said.

"I guess I was expecting a few shots that [I didn't think would go in], but it did. We were expecting a tough game coming out into finals."

The Yowies were in control of the game from the outset, as they leapt out to a 15-3 lead early in the first quarter.

Goulburn managed to fight back and ensured that Queanbeyan's lead stayed around 15 points for the majority of the game, but as the end of the match neared, the Bears sunk a couple of three-pointers and clawed the margin back to seven.

"It was good to know that the bench that came on and the girls that are getting rotated through are up to standard with the starting five," Grant said, following Queanbeyan's resolute effort to maintain the lead in the dying minutes.

As Grant indicated, the Yowies also used the match as an opportunity to rotate through their bench and ensure players who were returning from injury got court time.

"What we were trying to do is trying to get some of the younger girls out," she said.

"A few of the girls have come back from injury, so trying to get them to touch the home court a fair bit before we head into finals."

The Yowies currently boast a 9-1 win-loss record and are comfortably at the top of the Pool A Division One women's table, and are heavy favourites for finals.

The women's match was followed by the men, where Queanbeyan took on the Illawarra Hawks in an equally tight game.

The end result was a 62-74 loss for the home side, who would have been particularly disappointed as they only trailed by five points going into the last quarter.

Mae Grant and Skyan Fernando acknowledged the traditional custodians of the land before the women's and men's games respectively.