May 16: Geelong Supercats 113 (C. Lee 31, I. Muhammad 22, D. George 15) defeated Ballarat Miners 88 (R. Norwood 33, J. Brown 13, B. Carter 12) at the Arena.

The St. Laurence Geelong Supercats controlled the tempo of Saturday night’s game against the Ballarat Miners at the Arena from the start and finished with a comfortable 25 point victory against our regional arch rivals. Meanwhile, in the curtain raiser, the Supercats Legends featuring Jarrod Leonard, Ben Riddle and Chad Rivett defeated the Miners Legends by one point in a hard fought contest.

Ballarat kept pace with Geelong for most of the first quarter with their imports Rishawn Norwood and former Geelong centre Jamal Brown doing most of their scoring. Geelong’s import combination of Isma’il Muhammad and Clifton Lee continued their good recent form as 150 gamer, Jamie Medved, landed a three pointer near the end of the first quarter to help open up an 8 point lead for the home side.

Geelong continued the good form in the second maintaining the margin before consecutive three pointers from Lee and Nathan Herbert blew the gap out to 18 points before a late Ballarat rally had the visitors back to an 11 point deficit at the main break.

The sides went basket for basket in the third quarter until Zac Carter grabbed Muhammad by the arm and received an unsportsmanlike foul for the effort with his protest to the referee earning a technical foul as well, Geelong found themselves lining up for four free throws plus the side ball possession from the resultant penalty. The momentum shift towards the home side saw them increase their lead to as many as 18 points before going to the three quarter time break ahead 86 to 71.

Geelong were in complete control over a rapidly tiring Miners in the last quarter extending the lead out to as many as 29 through Lee and Medved’s three pointers before coach Mark Leader put his whole bench on to finish out the game. Geelong ran away with a 25 point win 113 to 88.

Lee had his best personal tally to date for the Supercats with 31 points while Muhammad also continued his recent form with a solid 22 points. Daniel George scored 15 points and bought in 13 rebounds. Norwood was the game high scorer with 33 points for the visitors.

Geelong has increased its winning streak to six but now face perhaps their toughest test of the year so far meeting the undefeated Frankston Blues at Frankston next Saturday night.