Jets eclipse Suns in finals race

By Rohan Smith
IT took all of 48 minutes plus overtime for the Sunbury Jets to do what nobody expected and defeat the Sherbrooke Suns in their preliminary final at Monbulk Secondary College on Saturday.
The Jets, with a 120-117 win over the highly-favoured Suns, now face the Geelong Cats in the best-of-three grand final series starting next week.
Sherbrooke’s Josh Smith started the game in exciting fashion, making four jumpers from his first five shots.
With 13 in the first quarter, Smith led Sherbrooke to a five-point lead at the end of the first.
In the second, Josh Bjelan joined in the action, with a three-point play at the seven-minute mark of the second, Bjelan put the Suns up by 10 and forced Sunbury to call a much-needed time-out.
But it didn’t help, with Smith on his way to 24 first-half points, continued to score and put Sherbrooke up 62-50 at half-time.
The Suns looked home but the Jets had other ideas as Sherbrooke took their foot off the pedal.
Through Adam Chirico and Cameron Hume, Sunbury whittled away the Sherbrooke lead and were within five at the final break.
A 12-2 run by the Jets had them within striking distance and that was all captain Nathan Sellwood needed.
With 23 seconds left and Sherbrooke up three, Smith had an opportunity to make it four but missed a crucial free-throw – one of the only mistakes he made all night.
Sellwood, with three ticks left, buried a three, tied the game up and sent it to overtime.
Having pushed the Suns to four tight quarters, the Jets weren’t about to go home empty-handed.
When Branko Martinovic was called for an offensive foul, the Jets were up three with possession.
And when Warren Escourt and David Wilson missed consecutive threes for the Suns in the dying seconds, Sunbury had their win.
Chirico led the Jets with 21 points while Ryan Illingworth netted 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and Hume scored 16.
For Sherbrooke, bowing out in the preliminary final was an unexpected result.
Thirty-one turnovers, including eight in each of the last two quarters, hurt the Suns badly.
Sherbrooke coach Frank Woodhouse said “any team that gives up a 22 point lead, doesn’t deserve to win”.
The first game between Sunbury and Geelong will be played at Sunbury’s Boardman Stadium next weekend.