July 24: St Laurence Geelong Supercats 94 (I. Muhammad 28, C. Lee 15, N. Herbert 13) defeated Australian Institute of Sport 87 (R. Broekhoff 16, C. Salecich 13, A. Drmic 13) at the Arena.

July 25: St Laurence Geelong Supercats 114 (N. Owusu 26, I. Muhammad 23, C. Lee 20) defeated Albury-Wodonga Bandits 85 (J. Williams 25, M. Gange 14, M. Pearce 13) at Albury Basketball Stadium.

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats travelled to Albury on Saturday night for a tricky match up against the Albury-Wodonga Bandits. While Albury dwell at the bottom of the Crazy John’s SEABL South conference ladder, the game became difficult on the back of a Supercats home victory 94 to 87 over the AIS at the Arena on Friday night. The team conducted their recovery Saturday morning before driving 4 ½ hours up the highway to Albury for the second match of the weekend. The Supercats comprehensively defeated the Bandits by 29 points as they were not behind on the scoreboard at any point of the night.

With Daniel George unavailable for Saturday night’s match in Albury, Geelong called on back-up big man Nick Van Der Klooster to add some height. Nick Didn’t disappoint head coach Mark Leader pulling in 9 rebounds against the Bandits tall timber. Meanwhile, Albury-Wodonga have lost import Fernandez Locket for the remainder of the season with an injury.

Geelong’s Clifton Lee scored the opening basket of the night and Geelong were never headed from that point. Nick Owusu was having a burst of form and he combined with Isma’il Muhammad to help Geelong open up a 15 point margin by quarter time.

Jamie Medved had found his range by the start of the second quarter hitting a 2 point basket then following up with a three moments later to blow the lead out to more than 20. Nathan Herbert chimed in as the Supercats built the lead out to 31 points to be double the score of the home side before Jermaine Williams countered for the Bandits and helped bring the margin back to 22 at the half.

The Bandits came out strongly in the third with Williams combining with Matt Gange to chip away at Geelong’s lead. While the Supercats continued to score well, the home side steadily gained on the visitors with the lead back to 14 at the last break.

Geelong started to show the signs of their tough weekend draw as Albury-Wodonga got the lead back to single figures in the last quarter before Muhammad, Lee and Owusu rallied a last charge for the Supercats and they accelerated away to easily win the match 114 to 85.

Owusu led all scorers on the night with 26 while Muhammad had 23 to average 25 for the weekend and Lee had 20. Five Supercats had double figures as Herbert had 19 and Medved in good form with 11. Williams was the best for the Bandits with 25.

On Friday night the Supercats took on a young AIS side. The AIS this year are not participating in the full season due to most of the players being part of the Australian Emus Men’s under 23 team that contested the world championships and came to the Arena after most of their graduating players have left to take up US college scholarships. With Shane Harris-Tunks the eldest player at 19, the eager students were always going to be a difficult challenge.

The game opened with the Supercats building a steady lead before Geelong’s own young gun Chris Dunlop was substituted in with the immediate effect of hitting a successive three and two pointers to take Geelong’s lead into double figures. The Supercats held sway for the rest of the first quarter and led by 10 at the first break.

In the second, Isma’il Muhammad and Clifton Lee were both on song for the home side and showed a few moves to the boys from the institute. Geelong steadily built their lead up to as many as 19 before settling to be 13 ahead at the half.

The game ebbed and flowed in the third with Geelong taking the lead out to 16 before Ryan Broekhoff helped the visitors to a scoring run to bring it back to 8 but in the last three minutes of the term the Supercats through Nathan Herbert went on fire with a 12 to 0 run to open a handy 20 point lead by 3 quarter time.

Broekoff and Anthony Drmic led a last quarter charge by the visitors who were helped in reeling in the Supercats by Geelong’s ever increasing turnover count, which had reached 28 by the end of the game and was a real source of frustration for head coach Mark Leader. With Geelong in control on the scoreboard Leader took the opportunity to rest his starters as the Supercats coasted to vistory 94 to 87.

Muhammad led all scorers with 28 while Lee finished with 15 and Herbert 13. Broekhoff was the best for the visitors with 16.

The Supercats return to the Arena next Saturday night to take on East Conference leaders Brisbane. This will be a must win match if the Supercats are to take third place in the South Conference and host a semi-final.

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