BSBL men’s A-grade: Bulls Maroon book grand final place with 41-point qualifying final win over Bulls Gold

Bulls Maroon booked their place in the Bunbury Senior Basketball League men’s A-grade grand final with a 41-point qualifying final win over Bulls Gold at South West Sports Centre on Friday night. The second-placed underdogs hung with the competition’s pacesetters for much of the night, but ran out of energy late to go down 121-80. Competition-leading scorer Travis Durnin looked to set the tone early in the night for Maroon, connecting on a three-point shot in the game’s opening possession, but it was Gold who jumped out to a surprise 28-21 lead after a pair of long bombs from Pharell Keats. Lively guard Keats was involved in everything early, snaking his way to the rim on scoring drives, dishing off flashy flick passes and skying to grab rebounds over taller opponents. Maroon shook off the slow start and peeled off an effortless 16-2 run across the late first and early second quarters to take back the ascendancy, and the teams traded baskets across the remainder of the half as Maroon took a 56-51 lead into the main break. The lead extended to 16 points during the third term before Cody Hill (26 points) drained a pair of threes in the opening minutes of the last to open the floodgates for Maroon, who closed out the game with a 37-11 final period. Durnin barely broke a sweat in dropping his 39 points on the night, while Keats finished with 36. In the elimination final, Conquerors knocked out Tornadoes Red in an at-times tense affair, emerging with a 74-65 win. The game’s intensity threatened to boil over at times in front of a vocal crowd, with multiple technical fouls called throughout the course of the contest. Tornadoes Red took a 57-47 lead into the final quarter but their offence completely stalled with the game on the line, coming up empty on nearly every late trip down the floor. Rangy Conquerors big Ezekiel McKenzie (20 points) was the winners’ leading scorer — and nearly blew the roof off the building with a late missed dunk in an effort to put an exclamation mark on the result — while Jordan Yarran (12) expertly steered the ship.