THE Portland Coasters have made their mark on this summer’s Country Basketball League South West Conference men’s season, defeating Mount Gambier in an anxiety-inducing thriller on Saturday, before wiping the floor with the Warrnambool Seahawks on Sunday.

It puts the Coasters in an exciting position after the first round of competition, with Mount Gambier and Warrnambool sides that always challenge in the CBL, and to defeat them early is certainly a statement on Portland’s part.

It was clear from the offset of Portland’s match against Mount Gambier, played at the Portland Basketball Stadium, that it was going to be a good game.

Both sides showed plenty of skill in an even start to the game, passing the ball around at a frantic pace, and defending like their lives depended on it, although both sides had passages that were a bit rusty.

Portland captain David Denboer epitomised this, crashing into the padding at the northern end of the court on several occasions in his determination to win the ball.

Quarter time arrived, with the sides evenly matched, Portland holding a narrow 16-13 lead.

Things changed in the second quarter, however, with Mount Gambier beginning to get on a roll just after that term had reached its halfway point.

This is not to say that Portland got worse, but just that the Lakers picked up the intensity, and were able to lift their scoring.

By half time, Mount Gambier led 37-30, and it looked as if the game was beginning to shift in their favour.

The Coasters are no easybeats, however, and they lifted in the third quarter, Toby Jennings especially raising the intensity at both ends of the court, alongside Denboer, Jackson Dunlop and the always-consistent Nathan Hardingham.

With the intensity lifted, momentum fell back the way of Portland, and they were able to reduce the deficit to 50-51 by three-quarter time.

The fourth quarter brought a further lift in intensity, if that was even possible, and Portland found themselves narrowly down with a minute left on the clock.

Jennings hit two crucial three-pointers, to give Portland the slimmest of leads, but two fouls at the other end gave Mount Gambier crucial free-throws.

Luckily for Portland, however, only two of the four were hit by the Lakers, and scores were level with just seconds left on the clock.

With the Coasters in possession, desperately trying to find a shooting option around an equally determined Mount Gambier defence, the ball came to Jackson Dunlop at midrange.

He took a gamble, with the storm cloud of overtime looming, and the ball hung in the air for an agonisingly long period of time, before sailing through the ring just as the final buzzer sounded.

It was a fittingly dramatic end to the Coasters’ first game of the season, and the large home crowd thought so too, with the jubilant sounds nearly raising the roof off as the shot went in.

The game finished off 70-68, with Dunlop accounting for 21 of Portland’s points, Hardingham 16 and Jennings 12, three of which were three-pointers.

Josh Jenner – who spent the winter months playing football for Portland – scored 19 points for Mount Gambier, Sam Stafford 15 and Bradley Jachmann 12.

“I knew Mount Gambier were going to be a strong team,” Portland coach Rebel Noter said.

“They’ve always been the benchmark, and that was a good test for us the first night.

“Especially for the young ones and first timers, they weren’t overawed by it all, the older boys in the team made it a lot easier to transition in.

“I was really pleased with everyone.

“I’m always confident with the boys, as long as they make the right decisions on the court.

“The score doesn’t matter to me that much, I jut see the flow of the game, and the way that their energy kept going up.

“As long as the energy’s up, we’re going to be able to get some good shots, and that was evident there.

“Young Walshy (Jack Walsh), hitting shots, coming out there, some big plays from him, Sam Peters was another one that stepped up.

“Jacko (Jackson Dunlop) and Davey (Denboer) stepped up, and they had to, they play above their height.

“I’m very pleased with everything.”