THE minor premier Geraldton Buccaneers and No. 7 seed East Perth Eagles will now meet in the men's SBL grand final for 2014 following Game 2 semi-final victories on the weekend.

The only men's semi-final Game 2 on Friday night saw the Vorian Agency East Perth Eagles beat the Perth Redbacks 105-94 at the WA Basketball Centre.

The Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers then joined the Eagles in the decider with a 96-86 Game 2 semi-final win over the Lakeside Lightning 96-86 at Active West Stadium on Saturday night.

The 2014 men's SBL grand final will now take place this Saturday night at the WA Basketball Centre between the Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers and the Vorian Agency East Perth Eagles.

The Game 2 semi-final match ups began on Friday night with the hotly-anticipated contest between the Eagles and Redbacks at the WA Basketball Centre.

The Eagles finished the regular season in seventh position but then beat the second-placed Rockingham Flames in the quarter finals and now have beaten the third-placed Redbacks in the semi finals to reach the grand final for 2014.

East Perth got off to a fast start on Friday night at the WA Basketball Centre with 24 points to 14 in the first period and the Eagles never surrendered that advantage ending up winning by 11 points.

The Buccaneers finished the regular season on top of the standings and won through to the semi finals by beating the South West Slammers in two games, but getting past the defending champion Lightning n the semi-final series was never going to be an easy task.

However, after beating Lakeside on the road in Game 1 last Saturday night, the Buccaneers needed just one victory this weekend to book in a meeting with the Eagles in the grand final.

And Geraldton needed just the one opportunity at home on Saturday ending up winning by 10 points in front of their raucous and passionate fans.

The Lightning actually started the game well leading 26-20 at the end of the first period, but by half-time the Buccaneers had closed the gap and trailed by just the two points with the game right up for grabs.

Geraldton put its foot down in the third quarter, though, outscoring Lakeside 26 points to 18 and then doing enough in the final period to hold on for the 10-point victory and to knock out the defending champions.

As always, there were some star individual performances across the four semi-final teams highlighted by Tom Jervis' triple-double for East Perth, but certainly not limited to that.

Jervis was the star of the night for the Eagles on Friday with 16 points, 18 rebounds and 11 blocked shots.

Kyle Armour top-scored for East Perth with 22 points, four rebounds and three assists with Mathiang Muo with 21 points and 16 boards.

Drew Williamson also added 20 points, four rebounds and three assists off the bench while shooting 4-of-8 from downtown and a perfect 8-of-8 from the free-throw line.

Joe-Alan Tupaea also added 12 points and four assists for East Perth.

Stan Okoye had a slow start but ended up with good numbers on the night for the Redbacks with 26 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out.

Joel Wagner finished with 16 points and nine assists for Perth while Lee Roberts finished with 14 points and 21 rebounds.

Marshall Nelson also contributed 14 points and Jarrad Prior 13 points and six rebounds.

Then on Saturday, Carter Cook was the star of the night for the Buccaneers finishing up with 35 points, 11 rebounds and six assists on the back of shooting 14-of-26 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line.

Aaron Ralph celebrated his 250th game in the SBL by helping the Buccs through to the grand final with 18 points and 11 boards while hitting 4-of-8 from three-point territory.

Jerrah Young contributed 13 points and four rebounds off the bench while Bennie Lewis finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists despite shooting 6-of-25 from the field, and 0-of-2 from the foul line.

Caleb Palkert top-scored for the Lightning with 23 points and 15 rebounds while Brad Jackson finished with 16 points off the bench.

Brad Tinsley scored 15 points to go with six rebounds and six assists as well for Lakeside but he shot just 5-of-16 from the floor and 2-of-9 from downtown.

Chris Sofoulis contributed 11 points and six boards for the Lightning with Jarrad Prue finishing with four points and 23 rebounds.

FRIDAY MEN'S SEMI-FINAL GAME 2 SBL MATCHES
Perth Redbacks 94 lost to Vorian Agency East Perth Eagles 105

SATURDAY MEN'S SEMI-FINAL GAME 2 SBL MATCHES
Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers 96 defeated Lakeside Lightning 86

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Marg Prior