James Murphy
A SHUFFLE of venues has set up a triple-header of South West Country Basketball finals at Mount Gambier’s Icehouse tomorrow night.
A top-place finish by Millicent Magic’s women earned them a home semi-final against Portland Coasters, but the decision was made to swap the location for the sake of crowd numbers.
That change comes due to the Portland junior basketball tournament being held on the same day, which will drag volunteers and spectators away from Millicent.
“There is rep basketball in Portland, so we thought there is no point having it in Millicent because there would be no one there,” Millicent Magic women’s coach Damien Venn told The Border Watch this week.
“We tried really hard to get the game in Portland.
“We would rather play it in front of a big crowd than no one.”
However, the final game on Court 1 in Portland is scheduled for 7pm which proved a risk if the tournament was to run late and push back the CBL start time.
“We made the decision to move it to the Mount and there will be a triple-header in Mount Gambier,” Venn said.
Millicent won both minor-round encounters with the Coasters by comfortable margins, but they will still enter the clash with caution.
“We won’t be taking that one for granted – Portland has been going alright,” Venn said.
“We have beaten Portland both times, but there is a girl called Tanielle Knight, she is an NBL1 player and she didn’t play against us.”
Knight recently top-scored in Portland’s Round 15 win over second-placed Mount Gambier and could be key to the end result.
However, Millicent will boast a full roster for the first time since early in the season.
“We qualified nine players and those nine players will be there,” Venn said.
“This will be the first time we will have a full list since about Round 5.”
The likes of Emily and Georgia Winter, Jasmin Howe and Alana Berkefeld boast a wealth of talent and expertise between them, while youngsters Poppy Venn and Eadie Easterby have also had their moments throughout the year.
There is no shortage of depth when at full strength and Millicent stands as the favourite heading into the contest.
The match is set to tip off at 4pm, followed by the Lakers v Warrnambool women at 6pm and the Lakers v Horsham men at 8pm.
