Twelve months after they were devastatingly beaten in the 2022 CBL North East Men’s Division grand final, Benalla Breakers will finally get a chance at redemption when they face the same Seymour Blasters in the 2023 decider.
The Breakers punched their ticket to the big dance with a thrilling 95-85 semi-final victory over Myrtleford Saints on Saturday night in front of a raucous home crowd at Benalla Indoor Recreation Centre.
Benalla was buoyed by its four-pronged attack of Tom Downie (24 points), Eric Miraflores (22 points), Lachlan Kego (21 points) and Sam Beks (20 points), as they combined for 87 points to see off a spirited Myrtleford unit.
A final quarter scoring burst proved to be the highlight of the night, as the Breakers finally broke the resolute Saints’ defence with 31 points to push the winning margin out to double figures.
It was a great reward for a quality 2022-23 campaign and Benalla coach Wally Armstrong said there was a sense of relief when the final buzzer sounded on Saturday night.
“Like any emotions when the game is close, they go up and down, you go from full on adrenalin to relaxing, back to full on adrenalin. It really does just go in runs,” Armstrong said.
“At one stage we were 12-3 down and then by quarter-time we were 21-16 up, so we just had to absorb the run of them and get back to what we do best and eventually it wore them down to the point where we could run away with it in the end.
“It was certainly a big relief to come away with the win and great reward for the hard work we have put in throughout the season.”
In a match which pitted two of the competition’s most evenly matched teams against each other, it was always going to come down to the star power of Benalla bigs Downie and Beks to get the home side over the line.
Armstrong said it was the dominance his team had in the paint and the roar of the crowd that ultimately proved to be the difference.
“The two bigs were huge for us. They had 20-odd points each while (Myrtleford) only had one big man, so we managed to get a hold of them in the paint and get a lot of second chance points,” he said.
“With the last quarter burst you could put that down to the fact we really absorbed the crowd. We had a very strong, vocal crowd and we were going to the end where most of our supporters were sitting.
“The boys really utilised that which kept the adrenalin going and that boost really got us over the line in the end.”
But while they have done all the work to get to the grand final, Armstrong and his troops were well aware that the ultimate goal was to win it.
However, standing in the Breakers’ way is a dominant Seymour Blasters unit which has not lost game in season 2022-23 and is striving for its 10th CBL North East division crown.
Armstrong said he was under no illusions as to how tough the assignment would be at Albury’s Lauren Jackson Stadium on Saturday night.
“We don’t want to go through what we went through last year, but there has to be a winner and there has to be a loser, and to win it you’ve got to make it, which we’ve done,” he said.
“It’s now down to two. They are an undefeated team, so for us to win the title we are going to have to take down Goliath.
“We’ve got to leave nothing in the tank. This will be the last game this playing group plays together, so we will head over to Albury with nothing to lose and hopefully give them a good shake.”