NBL1 South Recap | Friday Preliminary Finals

Ke'Jhan Feagin showed his all-round brilliance once more to lead the Knox Raiders to the NBL1 South Grand Final with the hard earned 68-63 road preliminary final victory against the Mount Gambier Pioneers on Friday night.

The men's preliminary finals began on Friday night with the Knox Raiders beating the Mount Gambier Pioneers 68-63 with the Sandringham Sabres now to host the Diamond Valley Eagles on Saturday night.

Both women's preliminary finals are on Saturday night too with the Bendigo Braves at home to the Mount Gambier Pioneers, and the Geelong United Supercats hosting the Waverley Falcons.

NBL1 SOUTH RECAP | SUNDAY SEMI FINALS

NBL1 SOUTH RECAP | SATURDAY SEMI FINALS

NBL1 SOUTH RECAP | FRIDAY SEMI FINALS

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Knox first team into NBL1 South Grand Final

The Knox Raiders made life difficult for themselves by having to win on the road to reach the Grand Final but they have made it on the back of a tremendous finish against the Mount Gambier Pioneers.

Despite the Raiders claiming the regular season championship in the NBL1 South by finishing two games clear on top of the standings at 18-4, a loss at the State Basketball Centre to open the finals against the Sandringham Sabres left them with plenty to do.

Mount Gambier booked in the hosting rights for Friday night's preliminary final by beating the Frankston Blues in a nail-biter two weeks ago so they were at Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre awaiting their opponents.

Titus Robinson finishes the Alley-oop ?

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Knox had to dig deep last week to overcome the Eltham Wildcats to reach the preliminary final and the stage was set for Friday night's battle with a Grand Final spot at stake.

It turned out to be quite the defensive, physical and low-scoring grind for a lot of the night with so much riding on the result, and at no point did more than seven points separate the two teams.

It was Mount Gambier leading 22-20 by the end of the first quarter before the two teams only combined for 25 points in the second stanza.

The Pioneers did manage to lead by as much seven points during the term, but Knox hit back with a 7-0 scoring run and by half-time, it was Mount Gambier clinging to the 34-33 advantage.

The tussle intensified in the third quarter with the lead for either team never more than three points with the Pioneers still clinging to the one-point advantage by three quarter-time.

It was a three-point bomb early in the fourth quarter that pushed Knox out to a four-point lead before Titus Robinson blew a wide open dunk attempt for Mount Gambier when he just simply tried to throw it down too hard.

Nick Marshall rises ?

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Wayne Stewart Jr stretched the Raiders lead out to five soon after, then Austin Rapp made it six with 5:30 to play in the preliminary final.

With three minutes to play it was Feagin again who came up big to keep the Knox lead at six but Mount Gambier fired back with the next four points from Nick Marshall and Austin Shelley.

Eventually it was a huge jumper with a minute to go from Feagin that kept the Raiders four points to the good that sealed the deal, and even his missed dunk on the buzzer couldn’t dent the celebrations with the five-point win with Knox the first team into the Grand Final.

It was a tremendous hard fought win in hostile territory for the Raiders with Ke'Jhan Feagin outstanding again with 19 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

Bailey Nunn added 14 points, three rebounds and two steals on 4/9 three-point shooting for Knox while Wayne Stewart Jr contributed 11 points and seven boards, Deng Acouth eight points and five rebounds, and Madut Akec seven points and five boards.

Nick Marshall finished with 15 points and seven rebounds for Mount Gambier with Titus Robinson delivering 15 points and eight boards, Jacob Lampkin 13 points and eight rebounds, and Austin Shelley nine points and two boards.

The Knox Raiders are onto the #NBL1South Grand Final ?

Ke'jhan Feagin had a near-triple double with 1?6? points, 9? rebounds and 7? assists ?

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