Knox Raiders 2009 SEABL champions.
By Greg Oakford
THE Knox Ford Raiders have secured the 2009 SEABL Championship after an emphatic 125-98 victory over the favoured South Conference Champion Frankston Blues on Saturday night in front of over 1,800 spectators at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.
After finishing the regular season second in the East Conference with a 15-12 record, the Raiders hit their straps at the right time of the season, rolling over arch-rival Kilsyth in the Conference preliminary final two weeks ago.
Coming into the highly anticipated contest, the Raiders knew they would have to contain Frankston’s big three of South Conference MVP David Gruber (17 points, 12 rebounds), Andrew Harms (15 points, 4 rebounds) and Rob Kampman (22 points, 10 rebounds), all of whom made the South All-SEABL team.
All game long the Raiders did a superb job on forcing the big three into tough contested shots and gave their opposition very little chance of establishing any rhythm at the offensive end.
With the defence holding up the way it had been designed by coach Graham Longstaff, it was then up to the star power of American import duo C.J. Massingale and Lester Strong, combined with other starters Mick Hill, Cam Rigby and Sean Carroll, to deliver on the offensive end.
Massingale would pour in 25 first-half points including 17 of his team’s 40 points in the second quarter which gave the Raiders a healthy 14-point lead at half-time.
Massingale was awarded the Hugh McMenamin Medal for Grand Final MVP, finishing the game with 30 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals and holding the ever-dangerous Harms to well below his average on defence.
Fellow import Strong had arguably his best game of his SEABL career as he got the better of his match-up with the talented Gruber all night.
With the game for the taking in the third quarter, Strong came to the forefront for the Raiders, scoring 13 points in the term, ripping down monster rebound after rebound and continuing to frustrate his direct opponent in Gruber. Strong finished the game with 25 points at 78.6 per cent, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 5 blocked shots.
Meanwhile, captain Sean Carroll, who like Massingale, becomes one of the two players with the most championships in Knox Ford Raiders’ history, had a great night on the offensive end with 13 points at 75 per cent, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.
But it was the role that bench player John Philip served up that really had the “Raider Nation” up and about. Coming into the game, many felt Philip could be the ‘X’ factor that the Raiders needed to guide them to victory and Philip was just that.
The talented forward, who can score from anywhere on the floor, was the Raiders’ third top scorer with 19 points at 77.8 percent – including four from four from beyond the three-point arc.
The end margin was 27 with the Raiders winning quarters two, three and four convincingly after being tied at 30-apiece after the opening term. The team shot at 58.8 per cent from the field and 52 per cent from the three-point range for the match and outscored the Blues 60-40 for points in the paint. Earlier in the evening, the Raiders couldn’t make it a double celebration as the Knox Ford Raiders SEABL Women were defeated by the Brisbane Lady Spartans 77-69 in their grand final.
