June 27: Australian Institute of Sport 123 (B. Motum 29, J. Page 22, M Dellevedova 19) defeated St Laurence Geelong Supercats 82 (N. Herbert 18, S. Myers 16, B. Bridgewater 14) at the Arena.

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats unbeaten run at the Arena in season 2008 is over suffering a humiliating 41 point drubbing at the hands of the best young talent in the country from the Australian Institute of Sport.

The injury and illness plagued Supercats were never in the hunt for the win. The students, on the other hand played masterful perimeter defence to effectively shut down Geelong’s scoring opportunities, whilst their offensive intensity was sublime led by 6’9” (205cm) 17 year old forward Brock Motum.

For the Supercats Braith Cox and Nick Owusu each suffered an ankle injury against North West Tasmania last weekend. Cox, bravely playing against advice from the Supercat’s medical team only managed 15 minutes on the court as captain Jarrod Leonard shouldered most of the workload. Brad Bridgewater was also hampered by an Achilles strain while Shawn Myers and Daniel George have both been suffering the flu.

The well drilled AIS, shut down Geelong’s offence from the start of the game with the score at 17 points to 6 after six minutes of play. The Institute extended the lead to be 33 to 16 at quarter time. Motum continued to make his presence felt scoring 19 first half points to have the institute in a commanding 66 to 38 position at half time.

With Nathan Herbert the only Supercat in double figures at half time, coach Mark Leader called upon his men to raise their intensity. With Jamie Medved and Leonard rising to the challenge, the Supercats held the visitors off for most of the third quarter but could not make a dent on the margin with the institute increasing their lead to 31 at the last break.

In the last, young AIS guard Jorden Page continued to pile on the points as the 17 year old Matthew Dellavedova from Horsham scored his fifth three pointer as the AIS ran away with the win 123 to 82.

Motum led all scorers with 29 points to go with his nine rebounds, while his team-mates Page and Dellavedova had 22 and 19 respectively. Herbert was again Geelong’s top scorer with 18. He was followed by Myers with 16 and Bridgewater 14. Still on the comeback trail after a shoulder injury, Jamie Medved toiled hard for the whole game for his 11 points.

While the Supercats cannot finish lower than second, they now rely upon ladder leader’s Frankston to loose 2 of their remaining 6 matches to let Geelong sneak into top spot. The Supercats must tend their injuries and regroup to take on Kilsyth in their final regular season home game at the Arena next Saturday.