It will be an emotional weekend at The Icehouse as the Mount Gambier Pioneers men and women hope to give the special venue the perfect send off as the NBL1 South finals come alive.
With the Wulanda Recreation Centre rising by the day at Olympic Park, the finals tomorrow and Sunday may well be the last time fans make the familiar journey to The Icehouse and cheer on the Pioneers.
The venue has been the team’s home ever since day one 34 years ago and while some of the stands and signs have changed, its character and charm remain the same.
For the last decade Richard Hill has been coaching the Castec Rural Mount Gambier Pioneers into battle at the venue and said it will be an emotional afternoon.
He said many travelling teams love the intimate and loud nature of The Icehouse and hopes his boys can give it the perfect send off by securing a grand final berth in Sunday’s preliminary final.
“It has been our home since the Pioneers started and it has been a tremendous place to play,” he said.
“The atmosphere is always great and everyone loves playing there.
“It is time to move onto the hub, but there will be an awful lot of history left behind.
“If the girls can win on Friday and we can win on Sunday it will be a tremendous way to finish The Icehouse off.”
The Pioneers men entered the preliminary final on a high after edging out Kilsyth in a tense qualifying final.
A bumper crowd packed into The Icehouse and cheered on Mount Gambier all the way to a 10-point win where the likes of Nick Marshall, Michael Harris, Kane de Wit and Jordan Rawls all made impacts.
But none more so than Tom Kubank who brought everyone to their feet with a couple of dunks during his 17-point performance which also included some steals and rebounds.
Hill said it was a tense night watching on from the sidelines, but a strong team effort got the job done on the big occasion.
“I was very pleased with the way we played because Kilsyth is a good team coming in with good form,” he said.
“We did get a lead out to 19 points early and were in a position to break them early in the last and a couple of things went against us.
“Our defence was a bit poor when we just dropped off our attitude a little bit in the third quarter, but other than that we were very good.”
Hill and the rest of the Pioneers squad faces the strange proposition of training and preparing for their huge preliminary final unaware of who their opponent will be.
Sandringham and Frankston will face off tomorrow night and the winner will travel across the border to face Mount Gambier.
The Frankston Blues came to town back in round 2 and despite some big efforts from Lachlan Barker and Dillon Smith, they fell nine points short due to a big night from Michael Harris.
The Blues also hosted Mount Gambier in round 7 and lost which maintaed the Pioneers’ perfect record from seven head to heads.
The Sandringham Sabres have had success against Mount Gambier this year prevailing 92-79 after Shea Ili and Tom Koppens dominated at the offensive and defensive ends of the court respectively.
Hill said both teams would challenge the Pioneers come Sunday.
“Sandringham had two of their best players missing with the New Zealand team last weekend but had been the form team going into the playoffs,” he said.
“But now Frankston are the form team having won nine of their last 10 so both of the teams have been in great form.
“We gave Frankston a bit of a smack way back when but have picked it up and are now playing great basketball.
“So they are both very good teams and we will take on whoever comes along.”
The season is on the line for the OneFortyOne Mount Gambier Pioneers women and they will have to do it the hard way.
After last weekend’s qualifying defeat, Matt Sutton’s team must first navigate a potentially tricky semi-final against Waverley tomorrow night before dreaming of a preliminary final on Sunday.
Sadly momentum is not on the Pioneers side having their last four games with the last win against Geelong almost a month ago.
Mount Gambier needs everything to go right this weekend starting tomorrow night where it resumes its rivalry with the Falcons at The Icehouse.
The sides met only a week and a half ago where Rebecca Cole destroyed the Pioneers around the glass to win by six points and Sutton must find a way to stop her.
If Mount Gambier is successful in the sudden death encounter a daunting away preliminary final against a red-hot Bendigo awaits.
The Braves have not lost a game since June and are the title favouries enjoying a 14-game winning streak so the Pioneers will need to be at their best.
With farewells to The Icehouse and grand final tickets to be had, it shapes up to be one of the biggest weekends in Mount Gambier’s history.
The women will fight to stay alive in tomorrow night’s semi-final at 7.30pm while the men will chase a trip to the decider at the unusual time of 1.30pm Sunday afternoon.
