THE Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers have joined the Vorian Agency East Perth Eagles in the men's SBL grand final for 2014 following a 96-86 Game 2 victory over the Lakeside Lightning.

With the Eagles booking in their place in the grand final with a Game 2 victory over the Perth Redbacks on Friday night, the Buccaneers joined them with a 10-point win over the Lightning at Active West Stadium on Saturday night.

The women's grand finalists had already been decided on Friday night as well with the Orange Autos Rockingham Flames and Lakeside Lightning to meet for the title next Friday at the WA Basketball Centre after beating the Kalamunda Eastern Suns and Joondalup Wolves respectively.

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.

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.

The 2014 women's SBL grand final will now take place on Friday night at the WA Basketball Centre between the Orange Autos Rockingham Flames and the Lakeside Lightning.

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

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 Mick Cronin