March 7: St. Laurence Geelong Supercats 116 (N. Herbert 30, B.Cox 19, J. Medved 18, D. George 18) defeated Bendigo Braves 90 (C. Hogan 17, N. Campbell 15, K. Probert 15) at the Geelong Arena.

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats went into Friday’s fixture against Bendigo with an all Australian line up for the second week in a row. Shawn Myers continues to be held up in London awaiting a visa and the Supercats were unable to complete the FIBA foreign player licence formalities in time for new import Brad Bridgewater to take his place in the side.

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The locals, however, acquitted themselves well with the same starting line up from last week of Daniel George, Nathan Herbert, Nick Owusu, Jamie Medved and Jarrod Leonard. It was Medved who lead the charge early in the match scoring 9 points in the first quarter to open up a narrow 20 to 16 lead at the first break.

Nathan Herbert, who earlier in the week learned that his appeal to the ABA to play unrestricted and thereby make way for Bridgewater to join as the second restricted player, was successful, celebrated by lighting up in the second quarter to score a personal tally of 19 first half points as the Supercats moved to a 56 42 half time lead.

Bendigo lifted their intensity in the third with veterans Chris Novak and Cam Rigby reducing Geelong’s scoring opportunities. It took a Geelong veteran to break the deadlock and this came in the form of Jordan Hill, who played his first game for the Supercats after a two year absence, scoring a three pointer from downtown. Bendigo held on and narrowed the margin to 13 points at the last break.

At the start of the last quarter Bendigo through everything they had left at Geelong at got the margin down to 8 points before Geelong lead by George, Owusu and Cox, went on a point scoring rampage taking the margin out to more than 30 before Head Coach Mark Leader rotated his entire bench onto the court for the last minutes. Hill was a worthy contributor and his defensive intensity was a welcome return as he fouled out of the game with a couple of minutes to play.

The Supercats cruised home to record the victory 116 to 90 with Herbert leading all scorers with 30 and supported by Cox with 19 and George and Medved with 18 each. Nick Owusu bounced back after criticism last week to score 15 points and 10 rebounds. For the visitors Chris Hogan had 17 points.

Head coach Mark Leader was more than pleased with the defensive intensity shown by his men and with the field goal percentage lifting to 48.8% this week, things are happening at both ends of the court for Geelong.

The Supercats now turn their attention to the Frankston Blues at Frankston next Saturday night in what will be captain Jarrod Leonard’s 300th game for the club. The club expects that Myers and Bridgewater will both be available for this game.