July Madness

Are your brackets filled out yet? Well get ready because the draw has been released! Ok, so maybe its not exactly March Madness...but the city is alive with anticipation. After the last weekend of play, our team was in a close tie with a few other teams. We could have finished 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th place with the outcome of the last game of the season. We defeated Rockingham to pick up our 18th win of the season, finishing 18-8 for the year. The bracket went in our favor & because of points and some head to head wins, we locked up the 3rd place spot. This is the highest the team has finished in its history, and 18 wins is the most they have ever had as well. So that is definitely something pretty cool to be a small part of.

Unfortunately Marcus had to head home early, and will not be playing in the playoffs because of some commitments back home. This obviously hurts because we are losing 20+ points a game in our top scorer. However, our other guard Tony has been shooting well, and we will have two strong post players for our run. Like I stated before, the first & second round is the best of three games. The first game is played at the away team (or worse seed), then you play two games at home (higher seed) if needed. I dont like the set up because if you lose the first game away, then its more pressure to win the next two, even though they are both at home. Here is the bracket & a little bit of information from the SBL website:

1 Lakeside Lightning 22-4 vs. 8 Perth Redbacks 11-15

The Men's competition see's all four game ones on Saturday night with the Perth Redbacks hosting the Lakeside Lightning first at 7:30pm. While at 1 v 8 both teams have had a victory in 2009 with the 11-15 Redbacks going down 120-85 in Round 1 yet they prevailed 107-98 in Round 14 over the 22-4 Lightning.

2 Goldfield Giants 21-5 vs. Kalamunda Eastern Suns 11-15

Last off the block is the reigning champions who are on the road at 8:30pm to the new kids on the block, the Kalamunda Eastern Suns. The 21-5 second placed Giants are on a roll recently with a 6 game winning streak. The 11-15 Eastern Suns have not defeated the Giants in 2009, going down 108-85 in Round 3 and again in Round 15, 95-84.

3 Wanneroo Wolves 18-8 vs. Perry Lakes Hawks 17-9

The sixth placed Perry Lakes Hawks (17-9) will tackle the third placed Wanneroo Wolves (18-8) at 8:00pm. The Hawks prevailed in Round 3 103-92 but the Wolves took out the Round 13 clash 97-86.

4 Geraldton Buccs 18-8 vs. Cockburn Cougars 18-8

Also on Saturday at 7:30pm is the Cockburn Cougars (18-8) doing battle with the Geraldton Buccaneers (18-8). The fourth place Buccs prevailed on the weekend 107-88 and in Round 8 the Buccs also won 107-83.

In one of the tightest finishes to an SBL season ever, the finals action is expected to be just as close. All of the quarter final match ups could easily go to three games giving basketball fans the most exciting action they could possibly get. All fans are urged to get down and support their teams with many great teams having just two weeks of their season left!

That information was taken from the website & it is probably a very true statement. Anyone of these teams could end up winning it all. The top 6 teams in the tournament are about as equal as it gets, so hopefully we can prevail. The game is this Saturday with game #2 being next Saturday. If game 3 is needed, it will be played on Sunday at noon. Unfortunately I might not be going to church that day!

Hope this helps out a little bit! Marcus should be rolling into CC now, so hopefully it will be nice to see everyone! I wont be too far behind & look forward to seeing family & friends. However, there are still a few things I have left to do here ;-)

This message especially goes out to Mark Green who told me I needed to update my blog!! Ha-ha.