August 1: St Laurence Geelong Supercats 135 (N. Herbert 28, J. Reardon 25, D. George 20) defeated Brisbane Spartans 109 (C. Goulding 23, G. Vanderjagt 21, T. Demos 16) at the Arena.

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats, in a battle for third position on the Crazy John’s SEABL South Conference ladder, put on an awesome display of basketball at the Arena on Saturday night to inflict only the third defeat for the year on East Conference ladder leaders Brisbane. The Supercats put on arguably their best all around team performance in two years to secure the win and earn the right to host the elimination semi-final against Sandringham at the Arena next Saturday night.

Geelong needed to win this crucial last game of the regular season to guarantee third place or else rely on Hobart beating fourth placed Sandringham. As it turned out both events came to fruition and the Supercats finished a game clear in third.

Both teams started tentatively with big man Greg Vanderjagt hitting the first points for the visitors. The Spartans pulled out to a small lead before Jason Reardon hit consecutive 2 and three pointers to tie the scores up at 11 each to signal the good night that lay ahead for Reardon.

Nathan Herbert’s 3 pointer took the lead out to 5 points late in the quarter but Peni Nasalo’s three once again put Brisbane back to a couple as the visitors went on to draw ahead by 1 point at the first break.

Chris Goulding’s three to open the second moved the Spartan’s lead out to 6 before Lee and George combined to rest the lead back for Geelong.  George continued a great quarter and joined Reardon and Herbert in building the lead steadily out to as many as nine before Brisbane got some momentum going to make the margin 5 points 60 to 55 at the half.

A fired up Brisbane came out in the second half and Tyson Demos helped them erase the deficit in the first 2 minutes of the third. It was then time for the Geelong fireworks show to begin. Clifton Lee, Nick Owusu, Braith Cox and Reardon all had threes and seemingly could not miss as the Supercats piled on a massive 45 points for the quarter and the defensive effort of George, Lee, Owusu and Herbert held the visitors to just 33 to open up a match winning 17 point lead at the last break. The undoubted match highlight also came in the term as Muhammad scored a reverse jam taking off from just inside the foul line to bring the capacity Arena crowd to their feet in adoration of this athlete.

Reardon, Cox, George, Herbert and Owusu continued their accurate shooting in the last to score another 30 points.  Brisbane had no answers scoring just 21 as the Supercats ran out easy victors 135 to 109.

The solid team performance was reflected on the scoreboard with six players scoring in double figures. Herbert was the best with 28 points including 4 threes but it was Jason Reardon, in his best Supercats game since returning to the team this year, who carried out MVP honours with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. Daniel George had 20 points and 7 rebounds while Muhammad had 18, Owusu 17 and Lee 14.

The Supercats committed just 12 turnovers in the match, guarded the ball with ferocity and shot it at 62% from the field and 55% from the free throw line. The defensive effort was the best seen at the Arena for some time with Muhammad and Owusu in particular throwing their bodies on the line diving after shots. Muhammad had 4 steals and Owusu 3.

Geelong will now host Sandringham in the elimination semi-final at the Arena next Saturday and, if successful, they will go on to play the loser of the other semi-final between Frankston and Hobart. The Supercats displayed ‘championship’ form on Saturday night at the right end of the season, Saturday will be another huge match and tickets will be sure to sell out early.

Members have first option on their season seats for the final until 4pm on Tuesday.

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