March 12: Australian Institute of Sport 92 (A. Drmic 19, I. Hadziomerivic 14, M. Creek 14) defeated St Laurence Geelong Supercats 89 (I. Muhammad 27, J Bullock 24, J. Reardon 14) at the A.I.S. Training Hall.

March 13: St Laurence Geelong Supercats 81 (J. Reardon 24, I, Muhammad 19, J. Bullock 18) defeated Canberra Gunners 80 (Z. Todorovski 19, A. Coddington 14, J. Miller 12) at the Belconnen Basketball Stadium.

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats have started the 20010 SEABL season with a win and a loss in the nation's capital, losing by three to the A.I.S. on Friday night before winning a one point thriller on Saturday night against Canberra.

In their first match of the 2010 SEABL season, the St Laurence Geelong Supercats have been narrowly defeated by the youngsters at the Australian Institute of Sport in a close match after playing catch up basketball for most of the night in Canberra on Friday night. With Nathan Herbert on furlough until Easter after completing his Adelaide NBL commitments and back up Centre Seb Loader unavailable this weekend, the Supercats needed all of their bench players on song.

For the trivia buffs, it was new import J’Nathan Bullock scoring Geelong’s first 2 points of the season at the 9 minute mark of the first term. With fellow import Isma’il Muhammad cleared to play, he joined Bullock and Jason Reardon in keeping the Supercats on par with the students until the four and a half minute mark, at which time, the A.I.S. went on a 15 to 4 run to hold a 31 to 16 lead at the first break.

With Geelong’s local stalwarts of Daniel George, Reardon, Jamie Medved, Nick Owusu and Braith Cox piling on the points in the second, the Supercats chipped away at the lead outscoring the home side 29 to 20 for the term to be just six points behind at the change of ends.

In a classic third quarter, the Supercats continued to pressure the AIS and took the lead at the six and a half minute mark. The lead changed three more times for the quarter with the Institute holding just a 2 point advantage, 68 to 66, at three quarter time setting up an exciting last term.

Bullock’s three pointer put the Supercats in the lead early on and they increased the lead to 6 points before a home town rally saw the Institute wrest the lead at the five minute mark. Cox’s three to snatch the lead back was immediately countered by the home side’s Aldridge with a 3 of his own and then Muhammad’s 2 again had the Supercats in front. Geelong then held the lead until the last minute when a charge call on Muhammad saw the Institute’s Drmic make the free throws and pinch a narrow win 92 to 89.

Muhammad lead all scorers with 27, while Bullock impressed with 24 points including 11 of 14 (79 %) from the free throw line. Reardon had 16 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Anthony Drmic was the best for the AIS with 19 points.

On Saturday night, the Supercats travelled across town to play the Canberra Gunners. That match started slowly with neither side troubling the scorers in the first two minutes of play. Reardon and Muhammad again led the scoring as the Supercats stayed with Canberra right through the term and this time, maintained their concentration and took the lead by a single point at quarter time after Muhammad blocked Canberra’s Jamie Mesman and then Reardon made no mistake at the other end.

Gunner’s newcomer Aaron Coddington made his presence felt with four points early in the second term to take back the lead. Both sides went basket for basket until Jamie Medved’s 2 pointer for Geelong tied the scores six minutes out from the half. The struggle continued all the way to the long break with the Supercats down 38 to 39 at the half.

Both sides scored 21 points each in the third quarter with no more than 4 points in it either way as the home side held onto their one point margin at the final break.

Jason Reardon’s three pointer gave the Supercats the lead back early on in the last but Canberra’s Zlatko Todorovski and Mark Lacey lead their side back into the game and opened up a seven point lead with 4 minutes to play. Owusu and Reardon each hit 2 free throws down the stretch and Bullock’s 2 pointer put the Supercats back within a point 90 seconds later. Todorovski then hit a 3 for the Gunners, which was immediately answered by Reardon and it was left to Bullock to score the winning basket for the Supercats with just 20 seconds left on the clock.

Geelong won their first match of the season 81 to Canberra 80. Reardon top scored for Geelong with 24 while Muhammad had 19 and Bullock 18 points along with 10 rebounds. Todorovski was the top scorer for the Gunners with 19 points.

The Supercats travel to Bendigo on Friday night before returning for their first home game against Hobart at the Arena on Saturday 20th of March. Tip off is at 7.30 and tickets are available from the Supercats office. Remember, great membership seats for the 2010 season are still available.

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