A LAST-SECOND three-pointer from Nathan Hardingham capped off Portland’s men’s basketballers ideal finish to 2023, as they claimed victory in a nail-biter against Horsham at Horsham Basketball Stadium 56-55 on Sunday afternoon.

The Country Basketball League win followed up their efforts from the previous night when they defeated Warrnambool in comfortable fashion 77-60 at Portland Basketball Stadium, with a huge third quarter getting them over the line.

While Hardingham was once again dominant in that matchup, finishing with 25, it remained a great all-around team effort highlighted by 11 players hitting the scoreboard.

The Coasters were the better side by the half, leading 32-26, however a 23-8 third quarter put the game more or less to bed.

It was a game which was a must-win for the Coasters, with their chances at a finals berth hinging on a win against one of the teams competing with them for a top four spot.

“It was a game we knew we had to have, and what was even better was that all 12 guys contributed on the floor,” Coasters player-coach Hayden Annett said.

“I think winning in the manner that we did gave us a lot of confidence… it’s a feeling we hadn’t had for a while, so it was good from that perspective as well.”

The Coasters blooded some youth in the game against the Seahawks, with under-18s player Nick Peters making his CBL debut.

“He wasn’t out there by accident, he’s worked really hard at training and absolutely earned the right to be out there same as anyone else,” Annett said.

Sunday’s game played out a fair bit differently, with the Coasters making a double-digit comeback in the fourth quarter to put themselves in contention for the victory.

Trailing by 16 at one point, some great team efforts defensively along with some timely threes from Tom Burns (who had 16 points for the game and four threes) got the Coasters back in the contest.

Trailing by two, Portland was able to get a defensive stop with 15 seconds remaining, with Burns looking to find Hardingham at the top of the key.

Hardingham created some space on the perimeter before hoisting the long-distance shot, and sure enough it dropped through the net to give Portland a one-point lead.

The game wasn’t quite over yet, with Horsham having one shot at the win as they advanced the ball with 1.1 seconds remaining after a timeout, but the finish wasn’t quite there after a lob towards the basket and the Coasters came away with the win.

“When you make a comeback down double digits, a lot of things have to go your way, but just having a team which is able to pull off something like that is incredible,” Annett said.

“‘Nath’ is a big-time player and big-time players make big-time shots, and I certainly celebrated like a very happy coach when it went down.

“This was another massive win, to knock off the top side in the comp in their building was huge for us.”

Other games

In the other Saturday night game Horsham was too much for Ararat, winning 74-62.

On Sunday Colac defeated Hamilton 87-64, while Warrnambool was dominant against Terang winning 100-70.