Yowies early finals exit after comeback season

The Spiders were an unknown for the Yowies, having never played each other in the regular season, they were a talented side with some excellent shooters and they played a fast brand of basketball.

Sydney Uni led all afternoon, but Queanbeyan managed to control the tempo of the match and keep within reach, trailing by five at halftime and had leveled the score by three-quarter-time.

With only a few minutes to go the Yowies were up by four points, but a number of turnovers allowed the margin to blow out to eight-points in favour of the Spiders and Queanbeyan's season had slipped through their fingers.

The Yowies were winless for the first six matches, but went into Saturday's match confident after a surge in form saw them sprint to the finals with an eight-match winning streak, coach Garry Ball said.

"It is what it is, it just wasn't meant to be," he said.

"We tried to formulate a bit of a plan and we tried to stick to that, but they were a very talented team and it's always difficult to play on another team's home court.

"We were away from home and didn't really know what to expect from the team, but what we did was quite good. We generally controlled the tempo and slowed things down, and we were stronger inside, we were very powerful.

"The margin wasn't a telling factor, it could've gone either way."

New Dad Jono Miller welcomed a daughter earlier in the week and celebrated by top-scoring for the Yowies with 16 points. Gabe Haynes was "remarkable" in defence, Ball said and Jono Lazaro (12 points) and Matt Ball (13 points) were excellent contributors.

Jeff Dowdell was slightly off his usual superstar game, but still managed a solid 13 points.

Dean Abbott worried the Yowies early, taken to hospital with a partially collapsed lung suffered in the warm-up, but is expected to make a full recovery.

Queanbeyan's season was cut short earlier than expected, but Ball said the boys can walk out with their heads held high.

"It's disappointing, but all things taken into consideration from where we started compared to where we finished isn't too bad," he said.

"We had a slow start, but we finished strong. We had just had eight wins in a row and we hadn't reached our peak.

"But we'll reflect on what's happened in the past and we'll learn from it.

"I'm really happy with the way everyone ended up playing, I'm proud to have coached a bunch of considerate guys, I really enjoyed it."

Ball expressed his well wishes for the Queanbeyan women's team who play in the semi final against Bathurst at Sutherland Basketball Stadium this Saturday, August 1, and said "hopefully the girls can bring [a flag] home".