It went down to the wire but it was the South Conference leading Sabres that pulled out the four point win over the Knox Ford Raiders SEABL Men in Sean Carroll’s 200th game on Saturday night at Sandringham.

The Sabres finished the opening quarter on an 8-0 run to take an eight point lead by the quarter time buzzer.

The Raiders poured in 27 second quarter points as CJ Massingale, John Philip and Sean Carroll combined for 20 of the team’s total quarter score. Although the Raiders offence was reeling, the Sabres continued to find the bottom of the net. By half-time the lead was cut by just one point, leaving the home side with a seven point advantage.

Coming out of the main break, the Raiders made adjustments defensively and continued to find the bottom of the basket. When Carroll made a two point basket with 90 seconds left in the third quarter, the Raiders established their first lead since the 3:48 mark of the first quarter. The lead would be short lived though as a Daniel Dillon three swung the lead back to the home side. Massingale then responded with a three of his own but the game’s hot three point shooting continued as Tom Garlepp knocked down a downtown three of his own to give the Sabres the two point lead by the three quarter time buzzer.

The Sabres opened up the final term with the first five points to push the lead out to seven but then it was Massingale time as the sixth year import caught fire, scoring 12 points in two minutes to tie to ball game up with just under seven minutes left.

Both teams traded bucket for bucket in the middle stages of the final quarter but the Sabres were able to make the big plays in the final three minutes as the Raiders missed crucial free throws, committed several turnovers and gave up offensive rebounds which led to a disappointing 92-88 loss for the Raiders.

Massingale finished with a game high 33 points @ 65%, 3 rebounds and 4 steals and kept the Raiders in the contest but would have been disappointed with two key free throws missed down the stretch that went half way in and then rimmed out. Lester Strong continued his way back to form with 15 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocked shots in 31 minutes, the most amount of game time the athletic big has played this season.

On a big milestone night for the Raiders Captain, Carroll notched up 14 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists as he competed hard on defence against NBL point guard Nathan Croswell.

For the Sabres it was Daniel Dillon (24 points, 4 rebounds) and Simon Conn (24 points, 9 rebounds) that shared the majority of the scoring responsibilities whilst Croswell (22 points, 9 assists, 5 steals) and Garlepp (14 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks) also contributed well for the home team.

The Raiders fall to fourth place on the East Conference ladder with a 9-8 record, tied with Brisbane who sit fifth with the same record. The Raiders next game will be an important home encounter with North West Tasmania who also boast a 9-8 record on Sunday 30th June at Knox Converse Stadium, tip-off 2pm.