THE Goldfields Giants’ dream of a hat-trick of State Basketball League championships ended with Saturday’s 104-99 loss to Perry Lakes.

The Hawks did what many thought was beyond them by winning at Kalgoorlie’s Niels Hansen Basketball Stadium, where the Giants had dropped just two games all season, to clinch the best-of-three semi-finals series 2-0.

The Giants were within two points with 14 seconds remaining when vice captain Mark Heron made two free throws.

However, Hawks Martin Vahala and Jo-Alan Tupaea sealed the deal from the free-throw line to send Perry Lakes into their sixth grand final this decade and their first since 2005.

The Giants went into the clash with a major chink in their armour with captain and match-winning point guard Shamus Ballantyne missing through illness, forcing Heron and forward Russell Hurst to step up.

Heron (25 points, 11 rebounds, six assists) played his best game of the season and Hurst scored 14 points in 16 minutes after being forced to pick up the slack for American import Michael Haney, who was relegated to the bench with early foul trouble.

Goldfields coach Stephen Charlton said the players were “gutted” by the loss after heading into the play-offs with “great expectations”.

Charlton praised the endeavour of his team, which failed to reach the championship game for the first time in his four seasons as coach.

“In reality we’ve lost two games by a combined eight points,” Charlton said. “This group has had a lot of success so you can imagine they are pretty gutted right now because they had great expectations of what they could achieve.”

The Giants’ biggest lead of the match was seven points in the first quarter. However, former Perth Wildcats forward Tom Garlepp scored 10 points in six minutes, including two three-pointers to keep the Hawks in touch at 28-26 at quarter-time.

Garlepp scored 14 of his 30 points in the first half as Perry Lakes took a slender 53-52 lead into half-time.
The lead changed hands numerous times in the third period when Haney hit 11 points to level the scores at 81-all at the final break.

Hurst, who shot 78 per cent from the field, gave the Giants the lead for the first time in the last quarter when he nailed a jump shot with less than four minutes remaining.

However, the Hawks were quick to reclaim the lead and were given a major boost with 1:19 remaining when Haney was fouled out for charging Tupaea.

With 55 seconds to go the Hawks led 98-97 when a Daniel Hawkins steal resulted in a Jesse Dixon three-pointer that gave the Hawks a four-point lead.

It was 103-99 with 13 seconds on the clock when Todd Earle’s attempted Alley-oop with Heron missed in what was virtually a last-ditch effort.

Charlton singled out Heron and Hurst for their impressive games.

“Russell has been robbed by the coach in the past couple of weeks for minutes, but he’s a fringe player that has taken some huge steps forward this season,” Charlton said. “With Mark Heron you know what you’re going to get and it’s going to be good.”

Haney, who is tipped to win his second successive Giants’ Most Valuable Player award on August 29, could have played his last game for the club.

There is also doubt over the playing futures of Heron and Jimmy Bowler. “I do not think this is the end of the run for this group,” Charlton said.

“Not everyone will be back next season and I’ll have to talk with everyone in the next couple of weeks.”

Meanwhile, American import Alonzo Hird became just the second Giant in club history to pull down 400 rebounds in a season.

Hird averaged 13.4 rebounds in 30 games to finish with 401, behind only club record-holder Jason Harrison’s 1996 effort of 446 boards.

Article by Jarrod Lucas (Kalgoorlie Miner)
Photo by Travis Anderson - Andmedia/Sports Vision © 2009.