Supercats into finals face-off

Erin Pearson
GEELONG Supercats will fight to keep their finals hopes alive tomorrow night when they match-up against ladder-leaders Nunawading in South East Australia Basketball League’s semi-finals.
The Supercats were dealt a painful blow last weekend in a five-point loss to the Kilsyth Cobras.
Forward Nathan Herbert said the Geelong side was determined to heal its wounds and “tackle their defence”.
“I think our defence needs to be strong because, coming into finals, defence is what wins them,” he said.
“It will really come down to who can play the better defence.
Herbert, who scored 24 points against Kilsyth, believed that shooting points presented little problem for his side.
“We do have a lot of guys who offensively are hard to stop, so we must just play the way we want to play,” he said.
“I think that will get us over the line. We need to have fast breaks and a free flowing game.”
Herbert said the match against the tall-timbered Nunawading side would be a “challenge”.
“Last time we played them at Nunawading we beat them in overtime in a close game,” he said.
“We were down by 12 points with five minutes to go and got up in over time by 10 points.”
Herbert said the Supercats were confident they could beat Nunawading.
“We are always confident going into games because we’ve been playing well,” he said.
“That’s certainly given us the belief we can definitely beat Nunawading again.
“The boys are looking forward to the challenge.”
The Supercats finished the regular season after the loss to Kilsyth in second place on the ladder with a record of 18 wins and nine losses.
The Supercats will travel to Nunawading for the south conference major semi-final this Saturday night.
Depending on the result of this weekend’s match, the Supercats will host the preliminary final on August 14 or the conference grand final on August 21.