Pivot City jump on Surfcoasters early to advance to Grand Final

PIVOT City will get a rematch at Wildcats Basketball Club in next week’s RL Signs Men’s Winter Championship Grand Final following a convincing 27-point win (93-66) over Surfcoasters last night (Tuesday, September 10).

Pivot City jumped on the Coasters early in the Preliminary Final, getting out to a 12-4 start in the contest at Geelong Arena, blazing a trail to lead 26-9 at the first intermission.

Surfcoasters did a good job to stem the bleeding in the second quarter, only outscored by three points, but still trailed 48-28 at half-time as Pivot City continued to put its foot on the gas.

The game went from bad to worse for the Coasters, failing to reach a double-digit score for a second time in three quarters and seeing its deficit grow in size from 20 points to 37 (72-35) heading into the fourth period.

The Coasters gallantly fought to the end, winning the fourth period 21-31 as a consolation, but their season would end at the final buzzer.

Pivot City’s trio of scorers in Max Kos, Ethan Blythe and Marach Marach proved to be the difference on the night.

Kos, a member of Bellarine Storm’s Big V side, finished with 26 points, tied with NBL1 Geelong United player Ethan Blythe, while United teammate Marach ended the game with 25.

Evan Juros was Pivot City’s only other player to reach double digits, finishing the night with 11 points.

Surfcoasters had a nice spread of points, although not enough in quantity.

Spencer Smith finished with 15 points, Clancy Whelan ended his performance with 13, Mitch Smith scored 12, and William McPherson scored 10.

Pivot City will hope to replicate last night’s success by defeating Wildcats in next Tuesday’s Grand Final, a side that defeated them by a single point in the Qualifying Final.

Surfcoasters, while finishing the season with a record of 12 wins, seven losses and a draw, will look to figure out what went wrong in the space of a week from scoring 136 points against Lara and then less than half of that on Tuesday.

Quarter by quarter:
Pivot City 26, 48, 72. 93
Surfcoasters 9, 28, 35, 66