Saints win intense playoff

The St Kilda Saints have booked their ticket to the finals after beating the Magic 91-90 in a thrilling A grade basketball playoff game at the Edgar Centre on Saturday.

It was the game of the season as the score bounced from side to side right till the last second.

The last two minutes took 15 minutes to play as both sides used their timeouts.

Danny Green had a stand-out game for the Magic, hitting big shots and driving strongly and led the team’s scoring with 28 points, including five three-pointers.

Green looked to have stolen the game for the Magic as he drove to the basket with determination and collected a free throw, giving the side a three-point lead with 20 seconds to go.

James Ross fired a wild full-court pass to Liam Aston who hit a clutch three-pointer from the corner with 10 seconds left.

Magic quickly responded with a speedy layup by Darcy Knox, giving the Magic a one-point lead with 2.7sec left.

The Saints threw a miracle full-court pass to Ross who was fouled as the fulltime buzzer went.

Ross calmly made both free throws to secure the win by one point.

Saints’ Ross said it was the closest game he had played that had not gone to overtime.

In other games, the City Rise Bombers beat the Andy Bay Falcons 79-66 in an intense do-or-die playoff game.

The Falcons started strongly with a 12-point lead by halftime and extended that to 14 points by the end of the third quarter.

The Bombers flicked the switch in the fourth quarter and stole the lead back.

Bombers Jan Verberne had an amazing hot streak, hitting five from five three-pointers in two minutes.

He finished with 29 points,  19 of them from the fourth quarter.

Momentum had swung to the Bombers and they continued to extend the lead through the last minutes.

Falcons’ Chris Hood was the usual team’s most valuable player with 29 points.

Hood was emotional with the loss, his last club game in Dunedin, as he is moving to Australia for work.

He said the team lacked experience and needed to adjust to the game play.

"Momentum is a lot harder to shift, gain and control in playoff basketball," he said.

"When people go on runs you have to stop them."

The Bombers will play the Magic next week in a win-or-go-home semifinal.

The winner will play the Saints in the final.

- Henry McMullan

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