July 17: St Laurence Geelong Supercats 112 (N. Herbert 22, I. Muhammad 21, B. Cox 19) defeated Bendigo Braves 100 (K. Probert 29, W. Randall 20, A. Tanner 15) at the Schweppes Centre, Bendigo.

July 18: Kilsyth Cobras 97 (J. Werner 23, T. Lang 23, Q. Henderson 13) defeated St Laurence Geelong Supercats 87 (C. Lee 20, I. Muhammad 18, B. Cox 15) at the Arena.

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats have put together a solid away win in Bendigo on Friday night with five players scoring in double figures before returning home to be comfortable defeated by Kilsyth on Saturday night at the Arena. Geelong’s rivals in the battle for third and fourth positions on the SEABL South Conference ladder, Sandringham, was also defeated on Saturday night opening the door for the Supercats to snatch third in the last round if they win their three remaining games.

On Friday in Bendigo both teams matched each other basket for basket for the first five minutes of play before Braves guard combination of Kevin Probert and Warren Randall scored consecutive 3 pointers to give the home side the advantage. Geelong injected captain Braith Cox into the game with immediate effect scoring a three to bring Geelong back to life. Chipping away at the lead the Supercats hit the front 34 to 33 at quarter time on the back of another Cox 3 pointer.

Isma’il Muhammad, Daniel George and Nathan Herbert all began to fire in the second quarter as Geelong steadily built on the lead to be 11 points ahead at the half with the Supercats scoring a mighty 70 points in the half.

The Supercats made their winning move in the first part of the third quarter with the import combination of Muhammad and Clifton Lee blowing the lead out to more than 20 while George and Herbert held the Braves scoring down. It was then Bendigo’s turn for some solid defence as they reeled Geelong in by three quarter time back to the 11 point margin.

The Braves continued to challenge in the last quarter as by now both teams were solidly defending. The margin reduced to just 6 points at one stage but the Supercats ended up with a comfortable 112 to 100 victory.

Herbert was again best for Geelong with 22 while Muhammad had a great second half for 21 points and Cox’s 4 threes netted him 19 for the match. Probert was the best for Bendigo with 29 points.

The Supercats returned home on Saturday to play the Kilsyth Cobras. With the Supercats National Championship team of 1999 celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the defeat of Kilsyth in that grand final, it was ironic that the Cobras veteran Mick Wheeler, who played in that game, would open the scoring for Kilsyth on the night with a three pointer. Geelong stayed with them for the first period and lead by a point at quarter time.

In the second quarter the game was won and lost Braith Cox’s 3 pointer put Geelong out to a six point lead but from then on it was all Kilsyth as the Supercats had no answers to big man Joe Werner and young gun Tim Lang who shot at will as the visitors shot 32 to 16 for the quarter to lead by 15 at the half.

Kilsyth continued to dominate in the third quarter on the back of a 36% shooting percentage by Geelong, extending their lead to 21 before Geelong reeled them back in to be down 61 to77 at the last break.

In the last quarter a pair of Jason Reardon 3 pointers and some solid shooting from Clifton Lee saw the saw the margin reduced to 4 points with a couple of minutes to play, however a last effort by the Cobras saw them take the match 97 to 87 over a disappointing Supercats.

Lee to scored for Geelong with 20, while Muhammad had 18 and Cox 15. Werner and Lang tied as game high scorers with 23 each for the visitors.

The Supercats will host the young Australian Institute of Sport side at the Arena next Friday night before travelling to Albury on Saturday.

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