BSBL men’s: Tornadoes Black extinguish Aces Sky’s finals hopes, Tornadoes Red jump Bulls Maroon into second

The final round of the Bunbury Senior Basketball League men’s A-grade season saw Tornadoes Black extinguish Aces Sky’s hopes of jumping into the top five and secure their own finals place with a 24-point victory.

Sky needed to beat Black by a sizeable margin to have any hope of featuring in the finals but Black tuned up for their own end-of-season campaign by winning 111-87.

With their season on the line, Sky were strong in the first half, taking a two-point lead into the main break after leading by as many as eight points in the second term.

But Black found some offensive punch and turned up their defensive intensity across the second half, posting a 63-37 run over the third and fourth quarters.

Callum Heap paced the winners in scoring with 36 points, while the competition’s leading scorer Nathan Walsh finished his season with a 26-point night.

Results in the other games with finals implications saw Tornadoes Red finish second, ahead of reigning champions Bulls Maroon, who dropped to third.

Maroon left themselves vulnerable by suffering a 108-83 loss to ladder-leaders Bulls Gold and Red took full advantage, with their 133-90 victory over Eaton Eagles boosting their percentage past Maroon’s.

The results mean the pair will clash in a qualifying final on Friday for the right to take on Gold next week in a game where the winner will secure direct passage to the grand final.

Gold had a comfortable margin over Maroon for nearly all of their contest, applying the final touch to a season where their only loss came by way of a forfeit.

Remarkably, a 37-point outing for Tanner Vogel lowered the young star’s per-game scoring average, which finished the regular season at 45.6.

Eaton’s winless season ended with a 133-90 defeat to Red but the margin of the loss was their second-closest of the campaign.

Dynamic guard Lachlan Bertram had another huge game for the winners, scoring 38 points, with Jacob MacLeod-Paterson (24 points) leading the Eagles.

The one game which had no bearing on the finals race was the best of the night, with Conquerors beating Aces White by the barest of margins in a chaotic finish.

In the final seconds of the game, Conquerors missed a pair of potential go-ahead shots but were able to keep control of the ball through offensive rebounds, with the third time proving the charm as Cohen Thompson scored what proved to be the game winner.

White were unable to get a shot off in response, giving Conquerors an 81-80 victory.