March 27: St Laurence Geelong Supercats 98 (J. Bullock 33, B. Cox 21, I. Muhammad 12, D. George 12) defeated Mount Gambier Pioneers 85 (A. Rice 29, A. Tipton 21, D. Jeffree 12) at the Arena

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats have shrugged off the sudden resignation of 2009 MVP Jason Reardon during the week and turned on a solid team performance to record their first win at home for the season against the Mount Gambier Pioneers.

The Supercats got the first points of the night from Isma’il Muhammad but it was the Pioneers’ Andy Tipton who controlled the first quarter scoring freely to build a twelve point lead before J’Nathan Bullock led the Supercats rally with nine first quarter points to bring the margin back to 7 points in the visitors’ favour at the first break.

In the second, the Supercats really gelled together as a unit. Bullock added another 14 points for a 23 point personal tally by half time while Braith Cox added 10 points for the term. Jamie Medved, coming off the bench, seized the opportunity, with Reardon and Nathan Herbert not in the side, to step up his performance and show new coach Jamie O’Loughlin that his talent is also deserving of some court time.

The Supercats dominated the quarter, outscoring the Pioneers 33 to 17 to establish a 9 point lead at the half. Andrew Rice scored the first basket for the visitors in the second half but the third quarter was to be more of the same as the Supercats once again piled on the points 30 to 19 to establish a match winning 88 to 68 lead by three quarter time.

Geelong couldn’t buy a basket for the first seven minutes of the last quarter as the tenacious Mount Gambier chipped away at the lead through solid Geelong defence getting the margin back to 11 points before Geelong moved away again. The two sides went basket for basket for the last three minutes but the Supercats had done enough to record their first victory at the Arena for 2010.

The club song was sung with some gusto as we saw the old and new members of the squad gel as a team for the first time. Bullock’s remarkable night finished with 33 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists whilst Cox put in another Captain’s performance with 21. Daniel George and Muhammad each had 12 and Medved had 10. Rice was the best for Mount Gambier with 29 points.

The Supercats have no games scheduled over the Easter break but return to the Arena on Friday April 9 to tackle Sandringham before travelling up to Ballarat on Saturday April 10.

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