NBL1 West Recap | Thursday Men's Semi Finals

One of the two semi finals in the Men's NBL1 West took place on Thursday night and the Warwick Senators produced the most remarkable of finishes to break the hearts of the Cockburn Cougars and advance to the preliminary final.

Week 2 of the NBL1 West finals series got underway on Thursday night with the first of the semi-final matches and what a cracking contest it proved to be between the Cougars and Senators at Wally Hagan Stadium.

No more than seven points ever separated the two teams throughout the evening who were desperate to earn the right to take on the Rockingham Flames in Saturday night's preliminary final.

However, it was the Cougars in the box seat leading by six points with just under two minutes remaining, but the Senators refused to throw in the towel.

In the end, two huge three-pointers late from Bryan Michaels and Kyle Zunic gave the Senators a sniff, but still the Cougars had possession coming out of a timeout with the chance to take the last shot.

It didn’t turn out that way, though, with Paschal Chukwu unable to grab the inbounds pass so it was Warwick to get the chance to avoid overtime with 1.2 seconds on the clock and the ball from the side.

Inexplicably, Perth Wildcats centre Majok Majok was left unattended under the rim, the pass from Zunic found him and he finished to give Warwick the most remarkable of 79-77 comeback victories.

The Senators will now take on the Rockingham Flames in a preliminary final on Saturday night while the season for the Cougars ends in the most heartbreaking of ways.

The other semi-final will take place on Friday night with the Joondalup Wolves at home to the Goldfields Giants at HBF Arena. The winner will take on the Geraldton Buccaneers on the road in a preliminary final on Sunday.

NBL1 WEST – 2022 MEN'S SEASON
SEMI FINALS – THURSDAY NIGHT

COCKBURN COUGARS 77 lost to WARWICK SENATORS 79

The Men's semi finals in the NBL1 West got underway on Thursday night and it always shaped as being a fascinating match up, and the Cockburn Cougars and Warwick Senators sure didn't disappoint.

Cockburn was at home to Warwick at Wally Hagan Stadium on Thursday night with a spot in Saturday night's preliminary final up for grabs against the Rockingham Flames.

That was a big prize with the chance to play for a Grand Final spot and neither team was going to let it slip.

The Cougars ended the regular season in fourth position on a five-game winning streak but then laid an egg last Saturday night in Geraldton suffering a 31-point defeat at the hands of the regular season champion Buccaneers.

The Senators had quite a rocky ride throughout the entire season with players coming and going right throughout the campaign, and even new coach Luke Brennan not being available for as many games as he certainly would have hoped.

Warwick ended up finishing the regular season in fifth spot and then despite still missing Cody Ellis and Corban Wroe, they blew the reigning champion Perry Lakes Hawks away in the elimination final at Warwick Stadium winning by 32 points.

So the stage was set for a mouth-watering semi-final battle on Thursday night and no more than seven points would separate the two teams the entire night in a remarkable contest.

Gavin Field knocked down a couple of early three balls for Cockburn but the outside shooting for the Cougars then dried up with the Senators managing to lead by two at quarter-time, and then scores were all square at 37-apiece by half-time.

The Cougars did threaten to pull away leading by five after five straight points in the third quarter, but the Senators weren’t going anywhere and they managed to lead 53-52 by three quarter-time.

Midway through the fourth term the Senators threatened a breakaway when leading by four after a Majok Majok three-point play conversion, but the Cougars immediately responded with a Seva Chan layup and then alley-oop pass to Paschal Chukwu to finish.

Bryan Michaels and Carter Skaggs then traded jumpers for their teams, and then so did Kyle Zunic and Luke Phillips to keep scores level with three minutes to go.

Skaggs then shook off a horror shooting night so far by nailing a massive three ball to put Cockburn up three with Josh Hunt then able to extend that advantage to six with a free-throw and a layup on the breakaway.

That was on the start of the drama, though, and it's going to be a final minute and change that neither team forgets for a long time for totally contrasting reasons.

Cockburn were still leading by six when Seva Chan threw a picture perfect alley-oop pass to Paschal Chukwu, who did everything but throw it down until it inexplicable bubbled out.

However, Chukwu made up for it with a huge block on Michaels on the next possession up the other end before the usually reliable Chan missed two free-throws for Cockburn that could have made the lead eight.

Michaels then compounded that by hitting a three up the other end to make it a three-point ball game again.

The Senators forced another turnover leading to a Michaels layup and suddenly it was a one-point margin again, but the Cougars steadied with two clutch free-throws from Josh Hunt.

However, Zunic then shook off his own rough shooting night for Warwick to nail one from beyond the arc to tie scores up with Cockburn able to call a timeout and draw up one last play to try and avoid going to overtime with 8.1 seconds on the clock.

The worst result from there for the Cougars did appear overtime, but the pass inside from Chan to Chukwu couldn’t be gathered and bubbled out of bounds.

That gave the Senators enough time to call timeout with 1.2 seconds to go and a chance at the miracle. That's exactly what they got. 

A beautifully drawn up play from Luke Brennan saw Michaels attract all the attention up top to receive the pass leaving Majok all alone moving to the basket. 

Zunic found him with the perfect pass, Majok finished it and the Senators won 79-77 in remarkable circumstances to advance to the preliminary final against Rockingham on Saturday night.

Bryan Michaels ended up top-scoring for the Senators with 17 points, six rebounds and three assists with Perth Wildcats point guard Kyle Zunic adding 15 points and five assists.

His Wildcats teammate Majok Majok added 12 points and six rebounds while Caleb Davis put up another 14 points and nine rebounds, Tyler Shand 10 points and two boards, and George Pearl seven points, eight rebounds and four assists.

It will be a bitter pill for the Cougars to swallow losing in that fashion but they did a lot right with Josh Hunt capping the best season of his career with another 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Gavin Field also finished with 16 points, three rebounds and two steals for Cockburn, Paschal Chukwu 13 points, nine boards, three assists and three blocked shots, and Carter Skaggs 11 points, five rebounds and two steals.

The league's assists leader Seva Chan had another 10 points and nine assists with Luke Phillips adding six points and seven rebounds.