May 29: Dandenong Rangers 85 (D. Campbell 15, M. Witherden 13, B. Hobba 13, L. Fitzgerald 13) defeated St Laurence Geelong Supercats 82 (I. Muhammad 20, J. Bullock 19, B. Cox 16) at The Arena.
May 30: Kilsyth Cobras 93 (M. O’Hea 29, F. Lockett 18, T. Lang 14) defeated St Laurence Geelong Supercats 69 (I. Muhammad 31, N. Owusu 10, N. Herbert 9) at the Kilsyth Sports Centre.
The St Laurence Geelong Supercats have lost a closely fought out match to the Dandenong Rangers at the Arena on Saturday night but may have lost more than that as SEABL MVP favourite Isma’il Muhammad was ejected from the game and later reported after an altercation with Dandenong’s Vince Inglima towards the end of the third quarter.
On Sunday things went from bad to worse as the Supercats were comprehensively out played by the Kilsyth Cobras losing by 24 points.
On Saturday the first quarter was to set the tone of the match. Muhammad and Braith Cox opened up the scoring for Geelong before Inglima and import Luke Fitzgerald struck back for the visitors. Geelong’s usual fast transition game was hampered by the press applied by the Rangers and the added pressure lead to some costly turnovers and the mistakes cost the Supercats with the visitors taking a seven point lead at one stage before settling for a six point lead at the first break.
Herbert’s third personal foul in the first ten seconds of the second quarter saw the playmaker watching from the bench for the rest of the term. This gave the opportunity for home fans to see new recruit and locally grown talent Dominic friend take the court for the first time. Brent Hobba and Matthew Witherden for the Rangers capitalised on Herbert’s absence growing the lead out to 13 points before Cox’s 3 pointer signalled the start of a rally by himself Muhammad and J’Nathan Bullock. Geelong bought the margin back to 5 points before the pendulum swung back towards the visitors opening up an 11 point margin at the half 47 to 36.
Nick Owusu seemed to have the ball on a string during the third quarter helping the Supercats bring the margin back to 3 before Dandenong called a timeout. Some choice words from the coach fired the Rangers up once again and Witherden’s 3 took the margin back to 11 points. With a minute on the clock in the third, Isma’il pulled down a rebound off Jon Sheppard’s 3 point attempt. Muhammad lost the ball in the dribble resulting in a scramble on the floor with Vince Inglima. Muhammad was allegedly struck in the scuffle and it was alleged he retaliated when the two got to their feet. Both players were ejected from the game; meanwhile Nathan Herbert calmly dropped a jumpshot to leave the deficit at 9 points at the last change.
Bullock stepped up in the absence of Muhammad helping Geelong, with a 2 and a 3, to get the margin back to 5 points before Herbert fouled out of the game. Once again, Dandenong seized the advantage but Braith Cox was not done yet landing a monster 3 in traffic to tie the scores at 75 each with 3 and a half minutes to play. Another 3 from Cox a couple of minutes later saw the Supercats take the lead at 1:42. Another 3 for the visitors had the crowd on the edge of their seats and the full house held its collective breath as Bullock landed to free throws to once again tie the match up with 15 seconds to play. Unfortunately the Supercats could not add to their score and some late fouls saw Dandenong take the win 85 to 82.
Muhammad scored 20 points in his three quarters of play to lead all scorers while Bullock finished not to far behind with 19 points and Cox had another good game with 16. Campbell had 15 for the visitors.
After the game the referees conferred and have determined to place Isma’il Muhammad on report. Muhammad was free to play in Sunday’s match against Kilsyth at Kilsyth and the charge will be heard later in the week.
On Sunday afternoon, the Supercats could not get their offence going at all. With Bullock succumbing to illness and not taking the court, the offensive power was always going to be a problem. Kilsyth had scored 9 before Geelong put in their first basket. After seven and a half minutes the Supercats had managed just 4 points compared with the home sides 24. Herbert hit a three and Cox pulled up for another 2 but the Supercats couln ot break double digits being down 28 to 9 at quarter time.
From then on it was ‘catch up’ basketball. Kilsyth had really done their homework shutting down the scoring output of Herbert, Owusu and Cox, leaving Muhammad as the only player able to score freely. The even second quarter saw the Supercats down by 21 at the half.
Geelong upped their defensive intensity in the third holding the Cobras to 15 points and pegging the lead back by 3 by the last break. Kilsyth again dominated the last quarter as head coach Jamie O’Loughlin let the bench have a run. The Supercats were disappointing going down 93 to 69.
Muhammad led all scorers with 31 but Geelong’s next best was Owusu with 10 while Herbert had a game to forget with just 9.
The Supercats are back at the Arena next Saturday night to take on Ballarat
