The Castec Rural Pioneers have continued their unbeaten away winning streak, coming away with two wins on the weekend after defeating the Kilsyth Cobras and the Diamond Valley Eagles.

The Pioneers have moved to second on the ladder in the NBL1 South Conference with a record of 12-4.

On Saturday night the Pioneers faced the Kilsyth Cobras and came away with a solid win.

The first quarter was fairly even as both sides worked their way into the game.

The strong Pioneers defence was on show in the first term as they held the Cobras to 18 points.

On the other end of the court Akech Aliir was on fire in the first term, scoring 11 points and helping Mount Gambier establish a five point lead.

The second quarter featured a lot more points on the board as both offences went back and forth at each other.

At one point the Pioneers got out to a 13 point lead in the period as they put 27 points on the board, but the Cobras reeled them back in to be down by eight at half time.

The Cobras came out strong after the break and got off to a 7-2 run in the first two minutes.

Once again both sides were evenly matched offensively, with Kilsyth outscoring Mount Gambier by a point.

Aliir was once again deadly, knocking down 14 points in the quarter and heading into the final term the Pioneers held a seven point lead.

The Pioneers started strong in the final stanza as they went on a 9-3 run in the first four minutes.

After the Pioneers hot start Kilsyth also had a run of their own as they scored 13 unanswered points to cut the Pioneers’ lead to one with three minutes remaining.

In a determined last push, the Pioneers locked in as Nick Marshall scored five unanswered points for the Pioneers to blow the lead back out to four.

Titus Robinson had some big back to back plays as he drained a three and nailed a slam dunk on subsequent possessions to take the lead to nine points.

With Marshall and Robinson getting the job done on the offensive end, captain Kane de Wit made some crucial plays at the other end of the court as he came up with three stops on three separate possessions to help secure the victory

Mount Gambier defeated Kilsyth 90-81.

Akech Aliir possibly had his best game of the season, scoring 34 points and grabbing seven rebounds while going five for five from three.

Head coach Richard Hill was impressed with how his side played on Saturday night and was happy with the performance of the team’s defence down the stretch.

“We kept getting it out to 10 or 12 or so then it got back to one with about two and a half minutes to go and our defence really cranked up and they did not score after that and we scored eight consecutive points to close the game out so that was good and encouraging,” Hill 
said.

Hill was also impressed with the performance of Akech Aliir on Saturday night.

“They had a weakness in their five man defence and we were able to exploit that, he had a very very good game and shot the lights out from three,” he said.

The Pioneers took the court against the Diamond Valley Eagles on Sunday and came away with another big win.

Both sides got off to a solid start in the first quarter as neither could pull away with a big lead and the Pioneers led the Eagles by four points at the break.

The Pioneers made their mark on the game in the second term as they pulled away with a big lead.

Defensively Mount Gambier were on point as they held Diamond Valley to 14 points in the quarter.

The Pioneers were getting it done on both ends of the court as they put up 30 points.

Austin Shelley was terrific in the second term, putting 10 points on the board and at the break the Pioneers held a 20 point lead.

The Pioneers continued to clamp the Eagles in the third period as they held them to 18 points.

Shelley continued to dominate as he scored six points and helped push out the lead to 25 heading into the final term.

After back to back low scoring quarters the Eagles bounced back in the final term as they fought to get back within reach.

Mount Gambier allowed Diamond Valley to get back into the game as the Eagles put up 29 points in the quarter while the Pioneers only scored 19.

However the Pioneers held strong and they came away with a 15 point win.

Mount Gambier defeated Diamond Valley 96-81.

It was an all round solid game for the Pioneers starters as Nick Marshall scored 25 points and had a double double with 14 rebounds.

Also helping put points on the board was Austin Shelley who scored 20 points with Akech Aliir putting up 18 and Christian Peevy contributing 13.

Hill said he thought his side played well in the win but there were still things to work on and improvements to be made.

“They were down an import so that helped us no question about that, we could not make a basket in the third and our defence in the first half was really good,” he said.

“We won comfortably but we did not really close the game out that well, we played fine.

You know, second game day of a back to back on the road travelling was a good effort.”

The Pioneers return home this Friday night as they face the Hobart Chargers.