March 20: St Laurence Geelong Supercats 90 (C. Lee 26, I. Muhammad 14, J. Reardon 13) defeated Canberra Gunners 89 (Z. Tadorovski 25, G. Baird 16, J. Miller 14, E. Woodfy 14) at the Geelong Arena.

March 21: St Laurence Geelong Supercats 104 (N. Owusu 27, D. George 18, J.Reardon 16) defeated Ballarat Miners 98 (R. Norwood 24, J. Brown 23, B. Carter 21) at the Ballarat Minerdome.

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats fans could not have asked for a better start to their home campaign in 2009 with a thrilling 1 point victory over a resurgent Canberra Gunners on Friday night at the Arena with just 0.3 seconds on the clock. They followed this up with a stunning upset win in Ballrat on Saturday night.

The Supercats went into the match with a depleted line up with Braith Cox and Dane Bow both unavailable due to injury and Nathan Herbert yet to rejoin the squad after winning an NBL title with the South Dragons.

With Cox out injured it was up to Nick Owusu to seize his opportunity to start at point guard and the young Geelong talent did not disappoint. Geelong’s star new import Clifton Lee opened proceedings with the first points of the match and he went on to score 11 in the first term to help the home side to a 26 to 25 lead at quarter time.

In the second quarter, Isma’il Muhammad showed the home fans the first of his repertoire of dunks as the lead continued to change back and forth. Lee’s 19 first half points helped Geelong maintain a 2 point advantage at the main break.

With Glenn Baird and Ei Woodfy the leading scorers at the half for the visitors, head coach Mark Leader asked for a stronger defensive effort on these 2 in the second half. The tactic paid off as Baird had just 3 second half points and Woodfy 2.

Muhammad came out of his shell in the third, with a further 2 massive dunks and Jason Reardon enjoyed his first match back at the Arena, helping himself to a couple of three pointers to blow Geelong’s lead out to 13 before Canberra reeled them back in to lead by just six at the last break.

With the 9 man Geelong squad visibly tiring in the last, Canberra hit the front with Just over 2 minutes to go but again it was Lee, Muhammad and Reardon, along with point guard Owusu, who steadied the ship and the winning basket was scored with just 0.3 seconds left on the clock.

Lee led all scorers with 26 and he was well assisted by Muhammad with 14 and Reardon with 13. Zlatko Todorovski had 18 second half points to be the best for the visitors with 25. Owusu had the longest night of his point guard life with 41 minutes played for a creditable 8 points.

On Saturday night the Supercats took on the Ballarat Miners at Ballarat. The Miners took an early lead before a Jamie Medved 3 pointer had the Supercats right back in the match. The Miners led narrowly at the first break 27 to 23.

Five minutes into the second quarter, Nick Owusu’s three pointer tied the scores before Ballarat’s import combination of Jamal Brown and Rishawn Norwood together with NBL forward BJ Carter helped the home side get away at half time to a ten point margin 59 to 49.

With the starting five back on to commence the third quarter, Geelong threw everything they had at Ballarat and bought the margin back to five points. Nick Owusu continued to thrive as starting point guard and raced to be Geelong’s highest scorer closely followed by Muhammad. As both teams stepped up the defensive effort scores were kept to just 16 to 15 for the quarter, as the Miners increased their margin to 11 at the last break.

Geelong started the last quarter with an eight to zero run which included threes from Owusu and Lee. As the defensive intensity lifted again, Geelong hit the lead with just over six minutes to play thanks to a Jamie Medved basket. There was no turning back for Geelong as they continued to add to their total. As the match descended into a foul and free throw contest, it was the ever reliable Medved who landed the frees at the critical time as Geelong won the match 104 to 98. Geelong scored a whopping 40 points in the last quarter to the Miner’s 23.

Nick Owusu had the match of his career scoring a game high 27 points. He was well assisted by George with 18 and Reardon with 16. Norwood had 24 for Ballarat, while former Supercat Jamal Brown had 23.

The Supercats return to the Arena next Saturday to take on old foes Frankston.