The Lady Braves’ finals aspirations looked to have ended, with Knox defeating Ballarat in the Lady Miners second match of the weekend, but a surprise win to Nunawading against Kilsyth has guaranteed the Bendigo team a place in this year’s finals series.

SEABL league manager Mark Quinn confirmed the Lady Braves place in the top six.

“Bendigo cannot finish any lower than sixth,” he said.

“If Kilsyth lose to Ballarat and Knox beat Albury Wodonga next weekend they will still finish sixth and if Kilsyth beat Ballarat, Bendigo will still finish sixth.

“Kilsyth losing to Nunawading at the weekend has helped Bendigo remarkably.’’

Quinn said the 2010 competition was one of the closest he had witnessed.

“It has never been this tight, because even positions one, two and three can change after next weekend’s results.

“It proves how strong the women’s competition is this season.”

“Bendigo was just lucky it was in front on a few crucial head-to-head results.”

Lady Braves coach Lukas Carey admitted he didn’t even look at the Kilsyth and Nunawading clash when assessing his team’s fate for the play-offs.

“The Nunawading and Kilsyth game was a game we hadn’t even looked at,” Carey said.

“We now know that we’re safely in, while either Kilsyth or Ballarat are out.

“It would have to be one of the closest women’s competitions ever.”

Carey is still confident the Braves can be a serious championship contender.

“We still feel really excited about playing against a few teams that we have beaten in the finals series,” Carey said.

“Brisbane has won its past four matches, but its last loss was to us, while Dandenong haven’t won since we beat them.

“But the good thing is that although we didn’t win, Saturday night’s game was one of the best games of women’s basketball I’ve seen.

“There were a couple of players who came back into form for us this weekend. One was Lauren King and she really stepped up.

“We probably should have used our bench a little bit more on Saturday and that is something we will be looking at for the finals,” Carey said.