“Ducky” reaches milestone 300th

THE Geelong Supercats honoured one of their own for accomplishing the elusive 300-game milestone on Saturday night against Waverley.

Mildura-born and Albury-raised Supercats guard Alex “Ducky” Duck received a standing ovation in front of a packed-out Geelong Arena as she ran out onto the hardwood for the 300th NBL1/SEABL game of her career.

“It has been quite an overwhelming week,” Duck said.

“So many people have reached out and gotten in touch to congratulate me, it has been super nice to get that support.

“But Saturday night was really special, with friends and family in attendance, as well as heaps of Sharks kids there from the local domestic club I’ve played for the last 10 years, it was really nice to see everyone in the crowd.”

Offensively, Duck failed to score a basket through three quarters, but at the five-minute mark of the fourth, she capitalised on back-to-back layups and sent almost 2,000 Supercats supporters into a frenzy.

Duck had a complete game statistically with four points, six rebounds and six assists in almost 25 minutes of court time, as Geelong walked out as convincing 19-point winners over the Falcons.

“Winning on the night definitely made the occasion even more special, that’s for sure,” Duck said.

“If we hadn’t had won, it would have put a bit of a dampener on it, so I was glad we came away with the win.”

Duck said the split in senior games played was 110 for the Albury-Wodonga Bandits in the former SEABL competition from 2008 to 2011 and 190 games for Geelong in the SEABL and NBL1.

“There’s so many people I could thank for the career I’ve had to this point,” Duck said.

“My parents for one, Susan and Peter, have been there from the beginning and have been a massive support network for me, I’m very close with my family, so they are a big one.

“Paul O’Brien was originally the one who recruited me to Geelong, David Herbert coached me for about five years, and played a massive part in my career.

“And I mean Sara Blicavs, we both came to Geelong the same season, so we’ve been teammates for 10 years now and I’ve got so much respect for her. There’s just so many people, it’s hard to single out a few.”

Duck said the goal for the rest of the season was to win a championship, stating this season’s team under Matthew Paton was in a “good position” and would continue to work hard.