After the Goulburn Bears scored a win and a loss in last weekend's double-header, coach Jack Channells praised his team's defence, but conceded their offence needed work.

On Saturday night, against the Hornsby Ku Ring Gai Spiders in Goulburn, the Bears appeared to have overcome the inaccurate shooting which plagued their opening match of the 2020 Waratah League Youth Men's second division.

A 79-70 win left the team in good stead ahead of Sunday's clash, against the Illawarra Hawks in Wollongong.

However, fatigue and inconsistency slowed the Bears, who stumbled to an 80-67 defeat.

"Wollongong was a tough one, I was expecting it to be as tough as it was," Channells said.

"We had the potential there, but unfortunately we couldn't follow through. A couple of silly turnovers and things let us down.

"Saturday's game was much better, we nearly got to 80 points again."

As a high-intensity sport, backing up with two matches in two days was always going to be difficult for Goulburn. Meanwhile, the Hawks only had one game scheduled for the weekend, and came in to the game fresh.

"Unfortunately in Wollongong, backing up is always hard, and Illawarra didn't play the day before either," Channells said.

"I think our boys were tired from the night before, but we still gave them a good run for their money."

In spite of the team's hot-and-cold shooting, Channells said they can compete with any other side in the competition. But to do so, they must first address their mindset.

"We need to win as many games as possible to make the finals," he said.

"We need to back ourselves and stay positive and the wins will come soon.

"We just have to show up and play our game, every game ... we've got the potential to make it to the finals, we just have to unlock it.

"I think it is mental. Physically, we can match up with any team. It's just our mentality at the moment, we need to slow it down a bit. A couple of the boys are looking too far ahead of the game, they're looking a few weeks down the track."

This weekend, the Bears take on St George Saints White in Hurstville. The match will begin on Saturday, August 1, from 5pm.

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