Perimeter shooting gets Pioneers over the line

ABY Prohaska forced the Mount Gambier Pioneers first home game of the season against the Ballarat Miners into overtime before Grace Champion hit the match winner after wo extra time periods for the 96-94 victory.

The home side trailed by as many as 16 early in the last quarter before Prohaska hit the buzzer beating three to tie the scores in regular time at 81-apiece.

Massive late shots from Casey Samuels for Ballarat and Kelsey Rees for Mount Gambier then saw the game into a second overtime, and after Samuels and Champion traded triples to keep scores tied, Champion hit the last score of the game and the Pioneers won the classic by two points.

Prohaska ended up top-scoring for the Pioneers with 18 points with seven rebounds on 3/6 three-point shooting while Rees produced 16 points and 16 boards.

Tilly Boler continued her strong start to the season with 17 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals with Carla Pitman adding 14 points, six steals, five assists and four rebounds, and Champion 12 points, six boards and two assists.

Things were just as nail biting in the men’s clash with the Miners before they, too, secured a two point win on the Wulanda pine.

Ultimately two huge threes in the last two minutes from Elijah Saifaleupolu and Collin Moore had a big say in the Mount Gambier celebrating their home opener with the thrilling 101-99 win over the Ballarat Miners.

It was a hot start from the home side with the Pioneers putting up 34 points to 26 in the first quarter on the way to leading by as many as 15 points in the second term and still being five points clear at the main break.

The Pioneers couldn’t keep that offensive output going and had just 13 points in the third term with Ballarat putting up 22, setting up a big finish.

A huge alley-oop finish from Cearius Warren on the pass from Bol Bak had Ballarat on top by one with 2:45 to play before 45 seconds later the Pioneers regained the lead with a three ball from Saifaleupolu.

Moore answered soon after to stretch the lead to five and that ended up being enough for Mount Gambier with Ethan Fiegert missing the attempted game winner at the buzzer for the Miners.

Moore ended up with 26 points, eight rebounds, five blocks, four assists and three steals in the win for the Pioneers with 4/9 three-point shooting.

Ngor Manyang also had 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals, Elijah Saifaleupolu 21 points and five boards with 5/8 shooting from downtown, Scott Telfer 13 points, three assists and three steals, and Lucas Gordon eight points and seven rebounds.

PHOTO COURTESY OF 3 POINT PHOTOGRAPHY (TANIA MILLARD)