The Castec Rural Pioneers’ 2024 NBL1 South season ended on Saturday night in a disappointing fashion as the Eltham Wildcats came to town and took the win – leaving Mount Gambier to rue a lost opportunity.


The night started well as former Pioneers captain Tom Daly was celebrated before the tip-off to mark his 200th game.


Leading the charge from the Wildcats was former Pioneers player Craig Stratford who had firm control with the whiteboard as Eltham’s head coach.


The Pioneers started slowly in the opening quarter and struggled to get things going on offence.


Eltham on the other hand were hot from tip off as they pushed the tempo on offence and suffocated the Pioneers in defence, with the home side trailing by six at the first break.


The second term was more even as Mount Gambier did a much better job at slowing down Eltham on offence.


Nick Marshall began to put his footprint on the game in the second term as he scored 10 points in the quarter.


Despite the slow start from the Pioneers they were still very much in the game as they trailed by only seven points at halftime.


The Pioneers came out firing in the third, looking a completely different team from the first half as offensively their intensity lifted as they looked to get back into the game.


However the Wildcats did not let the Pioneers get too close to their lead as they consistently made big shots when it looked like the Pioneers were going to reduce it to a one score game.


Again Nick Marshall was the only player who could consistently get to the basket as he contributed 11 out of the 18 points the Pioneers scored in the third term.


Heading into the final quarter there was still hope for the Pioneers as they only trailed by five points.


In the final quarter Mount Gambier started well in the opening minutes as Marshall scored the first five points for the home team.


But Marshall could only do so much as Eltham began to pull away halfway through the quarter with three straight threes.


The Pioneers struggled to combat the relentless firepower the Wildcats were throwing at them as they scored another five points before head coach Richard Hill called for a timeout with Mount Gambier down by 16.


The Pioneers responded well after the timeout as they scored 10 unanswered points and cut the lead to six.


But again Eltham made some big time shots as the Wildcats hit another huge three to blow the lead back out to nine with just under two minutes to play.


After the dagger three from Eltham the Pioneers struggled to knock down shots late in the game and the Wildcats ran away with the win after knocking down some crucial free throws.


Eltham defeated Mount Gambier – 91-82.


Like last week’s finals game the Pioneers struggled to get some consistent scoring across the team.


Nick Marshall was really the only player who could score as he gave it his all and knocked down 35 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while playing the full 40 minutes.


Other than Marshall the Pioneers only had two other players in double digits as Akech Aliir chipped in with 12 points while Titus Robinson scored 11.


Post game Nick Marshall struggled to find the words to describe what went wrong in the loss.


“There’s a lot of emotion right now, it’s tough, we just were good enough tonight,” Marshall said.


Despite losing in straight sets Marshall still had a phenomenal 2024 season for the Pioneers and he highlighted how his success in the NBL1 will help him this summer playing for the Adelaide 36ers.


“I just keep playing comfortably and doing what I do, I’m looking forward to it but this one just sucks man, I did not want to lose tonight so it hurts,” he said.


Head coach Hill said he was proud of his team’s efforts, despite the disappointing defeat.


“They played very well, the difference between the two teams was they shot the ball extremely well from the three point line and we did not, they had three guys who were high level players and they had their best games,” he said.


“We really had only one of our guys who had their best game which probably sums it up, we could not generate enough offence, we were really reliant on Nick (Marshall) that’s a credit to him but it does not help when you’re one dimensional.”


Overall Hill thought his side had a pretty good season despite the end result.


“The end result was disappointing but the season was pretty good, we had the best road record in the competition and we have the worst travel scenario out of everybody so that was something I was pretty proud of and I was proud of the guys to be able to do that,” Hill said.


“We might have lost seven or eight games at home. In history, it might have taken three or four years to lose that many games at home.


“I think that speaks for the quality of the venue, teams like coming to play here whereas they used to hate coming here … the Ice House was somewhere they just did not want to come to.


“Now they all come here a day earlier so they are practising on our court.


“It’s unbelievable there, it’s like an NBL environment, there’s a tremendous crowd and atmosphere so when teams come here we get their best … so I’m not disappointed in the team at all.”


While the Castec Rural Pioneers men are now out of the finals, Mount Gambier still has the opportunity with the OneFortyOne Pioneers women’s team who have a home preliminary final this Saturday night as they face the Waverley Falcons at Wulanda for a spot in the grand final.