August 21: St Laurence Geelong Supercats 87 (C. Lee 26, N. Herbert 19, D. George 11) defeated by Frankston Blues 95 (D. Gruber 22, A. Harms 17, M. Chapman 15) at Frankston Basketball Stadium.

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats have been narrowly defeated by the Frankston Blues in Saturday night’s Crazy John’s SEABL South Conference Championship game. The Supercats can hold their heads high though having put up a gallant performance only allowing a single digit margin to their opponents for the whole of the match.

The game opened with both sides showing a level of intensity worthy of the Grand Final. Frankston opened the scoring through Andrew Harms and went about building a lead of five points before Clifton Lee steadied the ship for Geelong with his first three pointer. Jason Reardon assisted Lee to put the score back in Geelong’s favour and his follow up three pointer put the Supercats briefly to a five point lead. With both sides solid in defence, the Supercats held onto a four point lead at the first break 24 to 20.

Isma’il Muhammad, Nathan Herbert and Braith Cox continued to toil away in the second quarter as the Blues through star import David Gruber continued to give resistance. The teams continued to go basket for basket as first Geelong then Frankston would gain the ascendancy with no side able to break clear to a good margin. Frankston took the lead and built it out to six points with four minutes left in the half and then, to qualify the defensive intensity, neither side scored for two minutes. Frankston, in a single play phase had no fewer than seven missed attempts and took six offensive rebounds for no result. Lee’s 3 pointer on the half time buzzer bought the Supercats back to within 3 at the half.

In the third quarter both teams again lifted their intensity as the small but vocal band of Geelong supporters, which were able to get in to Frankston stadium to see the match, began to get right into it. The game ebbed and flowed as Geelong big man Daniel George more than held his own against NBL bound Gruber and neither side held an advantage of more than three points for the term. Geelong drew the lead back to just 2 points by three quarter time.

In the last quarter Geelong’s use of just seven players began to take its toll but lot before Herbert and Reardon wrested the lead back for Geelong for a final time. Harms, Gruber and Mitch Chapman for the Blues combined to move out to a lead and then build slowly to a lead of 8 with just over a minute to play. In a last gasp effort Lee’s layup bought the margin to six and Herbert’s steal of the inbound loose pass and basket had the Supercats behind by four with 45 seconds to play. However, Muhammad gave up his sixth foul in the same play and Geelong could not answer the free throws made as a result. The Blues went on to record the win 95 to 87 in a disappointing end to an exciting finals campaign.

Clifton Lee had one of his best matches of the year to lead all scorers with 26 and pulled down 12 rebounds while Herbert was again solid with 19 points and Daniel George was a great contributor with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Gruber was the top scorer for the winners with 22 points.

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats congratulate the Frankston Cambur Blues for winning the 2009 Crazy John’s SEABL South Conference Championship.

The Supercats will host their presentation and appreciation night at the Sphinx entertainment centre on Monday August 31. Tickets for this event are available at the Supercats office.

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