Mount Gambier’s Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre was packed to the rafters on Friday night as the Blue Lake city hosted the Adelaide 36ers and South East Melbourne Phoenix for an NBL pre-season match.

The Mount Gambier Pioneers hosted the match, gifting the Adelaide side the home court advantage with Pioneer Nick Marshall relishing the opportunity to take the court as a 36er.

The 36ers made the most of the Mount Gambier support, dominating the Victorians to claim a 101-65 win.

Marshall knocked down seven points during the match, receiving rousing cheers every time he stepped on the court.

Mount Gambier Pioneers president Tom Kosch was delighted with the capacity crowd in attendance.

“It was hugely successful, the response we received from the local community the first day tickets went on sale gave us good confidence about the level of interest,” he said.

“We definitely were wanting to make sure it was a marquee event for the new facility and we believe we were able to achieve that, due to the strong support we got from the local community and our corporate sponsors who were able to take up their subscription for the night.

“It is always good to see Nick Marshall, for our Pioneers fans it’s great to be able to see the correlation between the NBL1 and NBL, obviously the national competition is a huge step up and something that people can see the level of competition between the two has been a relatable situation, but there is obviously plenty of players who contribute in the NBL1 competition who were on court for both teams on Friday night. For our Pioneers fans Nick gave them a bit of a show which was good.”

Kosch said there had been strong interest from the Adelaide 36ers to host another Mount Gambier pre-season match next year.

“We will continue to work with them on that, hopefully in their preparation for their next NBL season,” he said.

“We hope to be able to work on that relationship and more NBL games locally is something we would be open to.”

Kosch said there was plenty of support for the 36ers in the lead up to Friday night’s match, with a good attendance at his President’s Luncheon, which featured 36ers owner Grant Kelly as guest speaker.

Also in attendance were SA Liberal Leader David Speirs and local MLC Ben Hood.

“The Adelaide 36ersr were also able to get out on Thursday into our local community and spend some time in our schools, which was great for our local kids and expose them to the sport,” he said.

“A big thank you must go to our sponsors and those who supported the match, it was a huge success and we look forward to a little bit of time off before our NBL1 season but we hope to be able to deliver these events to help engage those with the sport and bring high level marquee events to our town.”