THE highs and lows of sport were on display Saturday night at the Icehouse, when the Mount Gambier Pioneers hosted the Norwood Flames in round five of the Basketball SA Premier League.
Yet another huge crowd poured into the venue to support both the men’s and women’s teams, with the highs coming from the women as they set the scene for a big night of basketball.
With a new American import Pachis Roberts on the floor, the women were set for a big game – and that is how it panned out.
The Pioneers held the advantage at every break, but in the final term the margin shrunk dramatically.
With 40 seconds to play it was a two-point game, with the home side holding the upper hand.
As the clock wound down further it was Roberts who iced the result, as she headed to the free-throw line with a pair of shots to extend the margin to an unbeatable four points with just seconds on the clock.
As the Flames in-bounded and the buzzer beckoned, a half-court “hail Mary” was successful, but the referees disallowed it, judging time had run out before the shot.
It would not have made a difference anyway, after Roberts’ two shots ensured the Pioneers’ victory – their second in the competition and second in a row.
Roberts finished her first game in Pioneers colours with 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
The lows of the sport followed, as the men hit the floor and again a close result ensued.
In fact, the game went into overtime, but what happened then caught everyone by surprise.
Throughout the night the referees looked to take control of what had at times become a physical contest, with many technical and unsportsmanlike fouls called.
Sam Daly had sat on the bench for much of the game, in foul trouble early – his first unsportsmanlike foul coming in the opening term – but returned late, with the match then headed into overtime.
With just a minute to play the Pioneers trailed by three, with Daly called for his fifth foul of the game and his reaction shocked many in the venue.
A verbal stoush then erupted between Daly and his direct opponent, then Daly appeared to push the ball into his opponent’s face, knocking him to the ground.
What resulted was an unsportsmanlike foul that saw the star Pioneers recruit ejected from the court, with brother Tom Daly escorting him unceremoniously towards the change rooms.
The action was the catalyst which could well have cost the Pioneers any chance of victory.
Mount Gambier then faced the monumental task of clawing its way back into the game after three foul shots were awarded to Norwood.
That left the Pioneers down by six, with a layup to the Flames seconds later putting the result out of reach of the home side.
In the end the visitors claimed the win by 10 points, in a game the Pioneers would be disappointed to have let slip away.
