The St Kilda Saints will get the final shot at denying the Mid City Magic their perfect season — and a shot at the title in the process.
The two old foes will meet in yet another men’s club basketball final this Saturday, reclaiming their spots after both missing last year’s big dance.
The Magic will take some beating, though.
They delivered an emphatic 124-72 win over the Mid City Lions in Saturday’s semifinal.
That was always an expected result, the Magic being yet to lose this year.
The question was who they would face in the final.
And for 37 minutes, it looked as though it would be the City Rise Bombers.
They controlled the majority of their semifinal, before the Saints reeled them in and won the last three minutes 13-3 to run out 89-80 winners.
Nuggets backcourt duo Mike Ruske and Christian Martin combined for 50 points, posting 27 and 23 respectively.
They were influential down the stretch.
The Saints had just gone ahead when Ruske drew a charge with the score at 81-79.
It ignited a momentum shift that St Kilda rode to the end.
Martin finished through contact off the next play, before Ruske was hit hard on the next possession, but finished his layup and added the extra at the line.
That made it 87-79. And it was the sequence that basically separated the teams.
The Saints delivered in those big moments, while the Bombers managed just one field goal in the last three minutes
Up until that point the Bombers had the upper hand and would have been worth a place in the final had they closed it out.
Nuggets guard Caleb Smiler had 23 points and was influential on both ends, at times doing an exemplary job containing the dangerous Martin.
Backcourt partner Patrick Tipene (15 points) had a strong day too, as did young big Harry Townsend (16 points).
And that trio was key as the Bombers built a lead through the second quarter.
They ended a tight first quarter ahead 18-17, before two three-pointers from Nikora Kavanagh (12 points) sparked them.
The Bombers played quality basketball, running through their loop set to generate good looks and capitalised.
They shot out to a 48-40 halftime lead.
But they could not quite pull away.
Martin became more prominent after halftime and kept the Saints in touch at 66-61 at three-quarter time.
A 9-0 run early in the fourth quarter tied the score at 70-70, but it was not until three minutes from the end that the Saints took the lead.
Tyler Lapham (10 points) banked in a floater, before Ruske drew his charge to propel the Saints to the final.
In the other game Dallas Hartmann led the Magic with 23 points, in an evenly spread scoring effort.
Victor Christof had 18 points for the Lions.
In the fifth and sixth playoff, Jack Hollingworth had 23 points as Varsity beat the Andy Bay Falcons 69-66.
