Olympians and Trades through to preliminary finals after big wins over Chapman Valley and Pumas

It was do-or-die on Monday night in the Geraldton Amateur Basketball Association’s elimination finals, with some teams living to fight another day while for others the season came to an end.

Olympians played Chapman Valley Warriors in the men’s elimination final, with the Octopuses keeping their hopes of going back-to-back alive with a 115-84 victory.

Olympians had their big guns back on court as Richard Bartlett returned for his first game since round 12 in addition to Buccs’ Johny Narkle and Malik Meunier.

It was a high-octane start worthy of a final, with both teams going basket-for-basket.

Narkle got to work under the rim while Hurst was matching him for the Warriors to keep them on an even keel, with both teams relying on drives to the basket rather than field shooting.

Then at 35-35 after 13 minutes of play Warriors - seemingly out of nowhere - completely lost control of the match.

Their passing became questionable coughing up the ball on multiple occasions while in defence they were struggling to contain Olympians without fouling.

The Olympians sensed the change and were happy to keep driving through the Warriors’ defence and let them rack up fouls.

By the end of the half, the gap had ballooned to 56-39 with a 21-6 stretch leaving Warriors with all the work to do to try and get back in the contest.

But besides Elliot Bennett hitting three threes in the space of a minute the gap remained around the 20-point mark for the rest of the match.

Llewyn Valli (17) fought hard in the second half and was the Warriors biggest threat behind Hurst (28).

But even the umpiring went against them, with a clear leg call being missed and 50/50 calls not falling their way.

Olympians were enjoying themselves and starting to hit their threes as Narkle (35) and Meunier (33) both had monster nights.

They will face the loser of Tuesday night’s qualifying final between the Hawks and Pumas.

In the women’s elimination final, Pumas’ difficult season ended as the Trades produced a comeback 71-57 victory.

Kayley King returned for just her seventh game and first since round 11 and was the key difference on the night with 17 points and countless assists.

Pumas jumped out of the gate in a scrappy start for both sides as points were hard to come by thanks to Jaimee Rich.

Using her strength, Rich dominated the space under the rim and though Pumas’ shooting was average at best she was often there to grab the rebound and draw fouls, building a 10-point gap.

A timeout was called and Trades were given a fire-up by coach Annette Cooper and it did the trick.

They organised themselves in defence and King got her hands to the ball, hitting 11 first-half points as they drew level at half-time 31-31.

The tide had turned and though Rich was fighting hard, Pumas missed far too many lay-ups and close shots to regain the momentum.

King was the focal point for Trades, always the first pass out of defence and feeding the ball into attack.

Daisy Whitehurst had her best game by some margin racking up 21 points, the first time she’s posted double digits this season.

Rich also finished with 21, with Sienna Forsyth next-best with 11, but they finished well off the pace.

Trades will face the loser of Tuesday night’s Stateside Olympians clash next Monday.