So near yet so far

Pioneers bow out of finals race in nailbiting contests

Both the Castec Rural Supplies Mount Gambier Pioneers men and the OneFortyOne Mount Gambier Pioneer women have fallen agonisingly short of claiming history making NBL1 South title deciders. The men took to the Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre court on Friday night, hosting the Knox Raiders, who had finished two games clear on top of the standings.

It turned out to be quite the defensive, physical and lowscoring grind for a lot of the night with so much riding on the result, and at no point did more than seven points separate the two teams.

It was the home side leading 22-20 by the end of the first quarter before the two teams only combined for 25 points in the second stanza.

The Pioneers did manage to lead by as many as seven points during the term, but Knox hit back with a 7-0 scoring run and by the main break, the Pioneers were clinging to the 34-33 advantage. The tussle intensified in the third quarter with the lead for either team never more than three points with the Pioneers still clinging to the one-point advantage by three quarter-time.

It was a threepoint bomb early in the fourth quarter that pushed Knox out to a four-point lead before Titus Robinson blew a wide open dunk attempt for Mount Gambier when he just simply tried to throw it down too hard.

Wayne Stewart Jr stretched the Raiders lead out to five soon after, then Austin Rapp made it six with 5:30 to play.

With three minutes to play it was Feagin again who came up big to keep the Knox lead at six but Mount Gambier fired back with the next four points from Nick Marshall and Austin Shelley. Eventually it was a huge jumper with a minute to go from Feagin that kept the Raiders four points to the good that sealed the deal, and even his missed dunk on the buzzer couldn’t dent the celebrations with the five-point win with Knox the first team into the grand final.

Marshall (pictured right) finished with 15 points and seven rebounds for the Pioneers with Robinson delivering 15 points and eight boards, Jacob Lampkin 13 points and eight rebounds, and Austin Shelley nine points and two boards. It was just as heartbreaking for the girls as they almost inflicted Bendigo’s first loss of season 2023 before falling one point shy, 97-96, on the road.

Kelly Wilson hit the winning bucket to advance the Braves to the grand final. On the back of losing last year’s NBL1 South Grand Final to the Ringwood Hawks, the Braves have put together a perfect season winning 22 regular season matches and then advancing to the preliminary final beating the Waverley Falcons.

However, the Pioneers were going to be no pushovers in the preliminary final at Red Energy Arena after finishing the season in second place at 17-5. The girls did have a slip up in the qualifying final against the Geelong United Supercats, but hit back at home last Friday night against the Ringwood Hawks to book in their preliminary final position.

The Pioneers started the game impressively to lead by as much as nine points in the opening quarter but the Braves were able to work back into the contest and by quarter-time, scores were level at 24-24. Bendigo then threatened to put

the game to bed in the second quarter like they’ve done so often this season. The Braves took charge going on a 10-0 run and ended up outscoring the Pioneers 30 points to 17 for the period to go into the half time break in control at 54-41. It was going to take a huge effort from the Pioneers to give themselves the chance of a remarkable upset, but that’s exactly what they did in the third quarter.

The Pioneers outscored the Braves 25 points to 14, and then kept the momentum going into the fourth quarter to grab the lead with the Braves rattled with a string of uncharacteristic turnovers and blown layups.

Mount Gambier went on to lead by six by the time Zitina Aokuso knocked down a three-pointer with 3:30 on the clock.

Suddenly it was the Braves who needed to respond and Amy Atwell did hit a three, but Isabella Brancatisano kept Mount Gambier up five with the answering bucket.

Haliegh Reinoehl and Atwell then traded three-pointers for their respective teams but when Atwell nailed another for Bendigo with 1:30 remaining, the undefeated Braves had reclaimed the lead.

Cassidy McLean then stretched that lead out to five but again Mount Gambier answered firstly with a three-point play from Sherrie Calleia and then two free-throws from Miela Goodchild.

It was then the remarkable Wilson who pulled up for a midrange jumper that never looked like missing to put Bendigo back in front by a point, and then when Goodchild turned the ball over, the Braves were able to run down the clock and advance to a second consecutive title decider.

Amy Atwell came up huge when it mattered most for Bendigo with some huge fourth quarter shots on her way to 33 points, four steals, three rebounds and two blocks on 4/8 three-point shooting.

The Pioneers went ever so close to what would have been a remarkable win with Cassandra Brown (pictured above left) finishing with 22 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals on 10/15 shooting.

Brancatisano added 20 points, six rebounds and three assists, Goodchild 17 points and three boards, Reinoehl 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists, Calleia 13 points, six boards, four assists and three steals, and Aokuso nine points and five rebounds.