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Saturday night
Shepparton 82
Benalla 65
Sunday
Shepparton 74
Wallan 79
Shepparton's Country Basketball League north-east men's division season began with an even ledger across a weekend double-header.
The Gators welcomed Benalla and Wallan to The Swamp at the Shepparton Sports Stadium, claiming one victory and losing the other contest in overtime.
It was an 82-65 win over the Breakers that started proceedings on Saturday night, with Atem Atem (31 points) and Javaan Mumtaz (25) lighting up the court.
Atem backed it up on Sunday by dropping another 28 points against the Panthers, but with Mumtaz going down injured early, the Gators battled well to send the game past regulation before just falling short of success in the 74-79 defeat.
Coach Brett Bathman was impressed with the work of some of his younger charges across his first weekend at the helm, including Jordan Michel, Charlie Di Stefano and Kelham Tyson.
“I think we'll take that result, they were both really good opposition,” Bathman said.
“(Sunday) went to overtime, we were 10 to 12 down really late, but fought back to push them all the way, I was really impressed with the kids and how hard they worked.
“Jordy Michel was really good and led the team really well from point guard, he really controlled the game.
“We had a couple of 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old playing, which is good.
“We'll keep learning and keep trying to blood these kids up and get them ready to make the step up to Big V basketball next year.”
Bathman is excited to be coaching the Gators this summer after being able to free up enough of his schedule to take on the commitment.
“I am (looking forward to it), it's enjoyable,” Bathman said.
“I was involved with the Big V season as much as I was able to and coaching (at this level) is something I haven't really done for a while, but I've been aspiring to do it, I've been doing some local junior coaching.
“Now that I've got the time it's great to be able to put back into the club which I played a lot of games for.”
The Gators will look to take their opening round momentum into next week's contest against Wodonga.
“I'm pretty happy with results,” Bathman said.
“It was a good weekend for the team as a whole, but there's lots of things to work on.”