THE Mount Gambier Pioneers will hope to make history tonight when competing for the final East Conference championship in the South East Australian Basketball League in front of a sell-out crowd.
The Pioneers will host Nunawading at the Icehouse for the grand final tonight, hoping to claim their fifth consecutive conference victory.
Just two weeks ago the two sides played off in the first semi-final where Mount Gambier came away with an 11-point win.
However, the Pioneers will not take Nunawading lightly after its 42-point victory over Geelong in the preliminary final last weekend.
Mount Gambier coach Richard Hill said the side’s two weeks of preparation had been reasonably “low key”.
“We are obviously excited to have another home conference final,” he said.
“But we are more focused on the fact that we have a great opponent that we have to overcome.
“Our ultimate goal will get back to the national final.”
Hill said the side looked forward to playing off in front of their home crowd in what will be the last conference final in the league’s history.
“This is the end of an era,” he said.
“They have changed the structure for next season and as a result there won’t be anymore conferences, which have been historically a part of the SEABL for a long time.”
However, Hill is under no illusions of an “easy game”, understanding Nunawading will come out firing.
“After their 40-point win over Geelong, they will be feeling confident,” he said.
“They have now had two opportunities to play here in the Icehouse this year and both of those games have been close until the final minute or so.
“We will need to play very well, Nunawading is an exceptionally good team.”
SEABL most valuable player Simon Conn will be difficult to shut down, but he is not the only capable player in the Spectres team with Matt O’Hea, Dain Swetalla, Tom Wright and Shane
Mcdonald all hitting double figures in the preliminary final last weekend.
“I don’t think we will be able to keep Simon Conn out of the game totally,” Hill said.
“He always manages to accumulate his points, but we need to make sure he works hard to earn them.
“We also need to make sure nobody else gets under our guard.
“They have a number of weapons, yes their key player is Simon Conn, but he has a good support cast.”
However, the Pioneers have their fair share of experienced and talented players, who are all fresh after a fortnight off.
After a gruelling final four weeks of the home and away season, Hill said they looked forward to a two-week break prior to the conference final tonight.
“We don’t have any injury concerns and have been able to freshen up a bit,” he said.
“But at the same time, we were playing pretty good basketball and having a couple of weeks off is not necessarily perfect preparation.”
The Pioneers pride themselves of their team orientated style of play.
Hill said Mount Gambier will use that same tactic when facing Nunawading tonight.
“We are never 100pc sure where we are going to get the bulk of our scoring from,” he said.
“It is normally spread across the group.
“We have got five players averaging double figures and Jack Madgen is just a tick under, which shows how we play.”
Who sinks the shots tonight will come down to how the Spectres set up in defence.
Brad Hill was the leader on the scoreboard in the semi-final with 29 points, with next best being captain Tom Daly on 22.
“Our team will find the best scoring opportunities,” Hill said.
“We are a very unselfish group and are prepared to share the load.”
Both Hill and Daly have been a part of the extremely successful Pioneers group for a number of years and them, along with Matt Sutton and Erik Burdon are entering their fifth consecutive conference final.
“We have a good core group of guys and keeping them together for a long period of time has allowed us to be consistent,” Hill said.
“From their point of view, it is an outstanding achievement, they have been the cornerstone of what we have been able to achieve.
“They bring stability to the club and if you are going to have continuous success, you need stability.
“Obviously it is all new for our imports Daniel Alexander and John Jones, they haven’t been there and done that, but the rest all have good finals experience.”
With a strong regular season behind them – which includes an unbeaten record at the Icehouse – Hill said the pressure is on come tip-off.
“Our home and away season means very little now,” he said.
“We are back in the same position we have been the four previous years.
“It is nice to be here, but once you get to this point you don’t feel successful unless you get back here the next season.
“That is how we have treated it for the last four years.
“We want to continue to achieve at that high level.
“And we will have the support behind us, we love playing in front of our home crowd.
“Our home crowds have been terrific all year, they were unbelievably vocal for us in the semi-final and we wouldn’t expect anything less in the conference final.”
The game tips off at 8pm at the Icehouse.
