Posted on 6 August, 2012

The Club Kilsyth Cobras hosted the Dandenong Rangers Sunday afternoon in the cut throat semi-final round of the Basketball Victoria D-League playoffs.  The match up pinned the second place Club Kilsyth Cobras against the third place Rangers.  In their previous three meetings this season the Rangers took the advantage coming out with two wins over the Club Kilsyth Cobras, who only lost four total games all year.  Both teams entered Sunday’s game knowing the outcome could go either way, and to the disappointment of the home team, the Rangers stole yet another win from the Club Kilsyth Cobras.

The Club Kilsyth Cobras came out with a burst of energy and connected early from the floor, leading 25-17 at quarter time.  The Club Kilsyth Cobras led by as much as 11 points in the second quarter before the Rangers stormed back, going on a 24-14 run to close out the period.  At the half the Club Kilsyth Cobras were just barely hanging on to a one point lead.  After a back and forth first half, the third quarter swung entirely in favour of the Rangers as they took over with a 27-10 performance that completely extinguished the fire behind the Club Kilsyth Cobras’ shooting.  Calvin Enge and Garry Dukes took over for the Rangers, going on scoring runs that the Club Kilsyth Cobras could not stop.  The two led the Rangers with 27 and 21 points respectively. 

While the Club Kilsyth Cobras kept the fourth quarter even, they could not make up for the damage done in the third and went down 93-77 at the final siren.  While the Rangers shot an impressive 57% from the field and found several easy opportunities in the paint, the Club Kilsyth Cobras only managed 37% from the field.

Aaron Reinbott led the Club Kilsyth Cobras with 20 points including four 3-pointers.  Kieran Murphy and Kyle Adnam contributed 13 points each while MVP candidate Jackson Brazier connected for 10 points and eight rebounds.  The Club Kilsyth Cobras end the 2012 season with a 17-5 overall record. 

The Dandenong Rangers will go on to play in the Grand Final next weekend against the winner of the first semi-final game, the Sandringham Sabres.  The fourth place Sabres defeated the top seed Knox Raiders 73-65.  The Rangers and Sabres will tip off Sunday 12 August 2012 at 1:00pm at Dandenong Stadium.