The Gold Coast Blaze have secured their spot in the NBL finals with a comfortable 91-73 victory over the Melbourne Tigers at the State Netball and Hockey Centre on Saturday night.
It was a disappointing end to the careers of Chris Anstey and Sam Mackinnon, who both announced their retirements earlier this week.
After back-to-back losses left the Blaze in danger of missing out on the finals, the visitors showed they will be a force in the playoffs with a commanding performance.
Adam Gibson led the way with 21 points, including three from long range, while James Harvey (16 points) and Mika Vukona (14 points) were also prominent as six Blaze players reached double figures.
Anstey was superb in his last ever game, leading his side with 13 points, while he also pulled down six rebounds.
Mark Worthington, who will be heading to Europe next year, also added 13, while Julius Hodge scored 10.
The Tigers got off to a dream start with Anstey nailing the first four points of the game, but that was the only joy the home side would have with a Gibson three-pointer giving the visitors their first lead of the match.
Melbourne hit back to briefly reclaim the lead, but from then on it was all Gold Coast with the Tigers lacking intensity after having their playoff hopes dashed last week.
They did themselves no favours midway through the quarter when a technical foul was called on the team for having too many players on the court.
Harvey converted the two free-throws before Vukona scored an easy lay-up to push the Blaze out to an early five-point lead.
Anstey showed his class with a brilliant fadeaway jump shot, but it was Gold Coast that had all the answers with Gibson at the heart of the majority of the Blaze attacks.
However, three successful free-throws to close the first stanza kept the Tigers in touch at the first change as they trailed 17-19.
But the Blaze effectively ended the contest in the next quarter, outscoring Melbourne by 15 points.
Gibson and Chris Goulding got the ball rolling with back-to-back three-pointers and suddenly the visitors had opened up a 10-point lead, which prompted Tigers coach Al Westover to call a timeout.
The break did little to stop the momentum with Harvey pushing the lead out to 12 before Worthington connected from long range to finally give the home side something to cheer about.
Another long-range bomb from Goulding and a successful jump shot from Gibson propelled the Blaze out a 16-point lead and despite Hodge doing his best at the other end, Gold Coast closed the half with a Bradshaw three-pointer to be in total control at 49-32.
It was party time in the third quarter for the visitors with Erron Maxey and Gibson both scoring from beyond the arc before the former capitalized on a Tigers turnover with a runaway slam dunk to give the Blaze their biggest lead of the match (69-41).
With only 45 points in three quarters, Melbourne only just beat its previous lowest third-quarter total by two points.
There was finally some joy for the home fans to begin the final stanza with Mackinnon scoring the last points of his career with a three-pointer.
Daryl Corletto matched that effort and the Tigers continued to fight to the death and outscored their opponents by eight points in the final quarter but they were never really in the hunt as the Blaze cruised home.
After struggling throughout the game with injury, Mackinnon was subbed off midway through the final quarter to a standing ovation from the crowd and players on court. He finished his career with 6483 points from 460 NBL games.
Anstey nailed a three-pointer from the corner before he too was subbed off to another standing ovation from the 3500-strong crowd.
The two-time MVP bows out of the game with over 5000 points from 338 NBL games.
While the Tigers' season is over, the Blaze can look forward to the playoffs, but they will have to wait on the remaining matches of the round to learn their opponent next week.
Gold Coast Blaze 91 (Gibson 21, Harvey 16, Vukona 14)
OAMPS Melbourne Tigers 73 (Anstey 13, Worthington 13, Hodge 10)
@ The Cage, 13/02/10. Crowd: 3,500
