The St Laurence Geelong Supercats started their 2008 SEABL campaign with an all-Australian line up in their match-up with Brisbane’s Southern District Spartans and produced a victory following a very exciting conclusion to the match.

March 1: St. Laurence Geelong Supercats 95 (B.Cox 22, D. George 21, N.Herbert 15, J. Medved 15) defeated Southern Districts Spartans 94 (J. Brown 24, B Williamson 22, C. Goulding 22) at the Geelong Arena.

With the Brisbane Bullet’s untimely demise from the NBL finals on Thursday night, Southern Districts was bolstered by the addition of Bullets players Brad Williamson, Chris Goulding and Justin Brown. The home side, on the other hand, were without import Shawn Myers, who is yet to leave England due to visa problems and unable to play second import, Brad Bridgewater due to an achilles injury.  Ironically, Bridgewater will be released upon Myers’ arrival due to the restricted status of local NBL star Nathan Herbert.

With Geelong severely lacking in height, Head Coach Mark Leader convinced veteran Supercat centre Nick Van Der Klooster to come out of retirement for a cameo appearance for his old club. The “Rooster” did not disappoint managing 6 points in his limited minutes.

Geelong led out early with four guards accompanying new centre Daniel George in the starting five.  Geelong led 28 to 20 by quarter time on the back of 11 point shooting from Herbert and Jamie Medved, relishing in his elevation to the starting five, doing most of the attacking.

A lack lustre second quarter saw the Supercats hold a 45 to 40 margin at the main break, costly turnovers limited the Supercats scoring output. Three consecutive three pointers from Braith Cox in the third term helped Geelong maintain the five point margin at the last break, setting up an exciting final term.

Districts took the lead by as many as four points during the last quarter but when Williamson fouled out of the game for the visitors with 3 minutes 40 seconds to play the pendulum of fortune swung back to the Supercats. The lead changed several times over the next few minutes until Braith Cox was fouled with 24 seconds on the clock. Being successful with both free throws, Cox put the Supercats ahead by one, however Peni Nasalo was fouled by Nick Owusu on the return down the court and he then put the visitors ahead. With just six seconds left on the clock Goulding committed a blocking foul on Cox and again he made both the free throws to give the Supercats the victory 95 points to 94.

Cox was Geelong’s leading scorer with 22 points, closely followed by Daniel George who had 21 points and a massive 23 rebounds to win the game MVP in his first outing for the club. Herbert and Medved had 15 points each. For the visitors, the Bullets players starred with Brown leading all scorers with 24 and Goulding and Williamson sharing 22 each.

The Supercats play Bendigo at the Arena on Friday March 7. It is expected that Myers will join the squad in time for this game.