March 13: Mount Gambier Pioneers 92 (K. Benjamin 26, D. Jeffree 20, S. Seebohm 14) defeated St Laurence Geelong Supercats 77 (C. Lee 26, I. Muhammad 16, D. George 13) at the Mount Gambier Ice House.

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats will have to wait until their first home game at the Arena next Friday night to record their first win as they were unable to get the away win on Friday night in Mount Gambier.

The Supercats were without last year’s MVP Nathan Herbert who was busy winning an NBL title with his South Dragons. Herbert will now have a couple of weeks break before resuming with the Supercats.

Mount Gambier’s new import Keith Benjamin and local star Dallas Jeffree helped the Pioneers out to an early lead but Geelong’s import duo of Clifton Lee and Isma’il Muhamad kept Geelong in the contest tying it up at 21 each early in the second after Geelong was down 2 to 16 at quarter time.

The locals moved away in the second to be up 47 to 36 at the half as the turnover count began to climb.

Geelong kept pace with Mount Gambier in the second half but could not breach the gap as the Pioneers went on to win the match with the final score of 92 to 77.

Lee matched his Mount Gambier counterpart Benjamin with 26 points each, while Muhammad had 16 and Daniel George 13.

Geelong will host Canberra at the Arena next Friday night before travelling to Ballarat on Saturday.