BENDIGO East has held onto its position in the BBD weekend pennant top four and will play finals for the ninth year in a row.
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The Beasties went into the last home and away round with their position in the finals still unsecured.
However, the Beasties could sleep easy on Friday night after booking another March appearance by beating South Bendigo under lights.
The Beasties won Friday night’s encounter against South 102-82, closing the door on the possibility of either Golden Square or Inglewood knocking them out of the top four on Saturday.
While the 20-shot margin would indicate the Beasties did it easy against South, they didn’t.
Bendigo East had just one winning rink – but it was decisive as skipper Brad Marron thrashed Liam Crapper 36-9.
The other three rink contests were all wins to South Bendigo, but Marron’s rink had done unrectifiable damage to the home side.
RELATED – BBD ROUND 14 PENNANT RESULTS
• South Bendigo’s defeat left the door ajar for Kangaroo Flat on Saturday to climb from third to second and grab the double chance.
To do so the Flat needed to beat top side Eaglehawk with at least three rinks up to overhaul South.
However, Eaglehawk had other ideas.
The Hawks maintained their unbeaten record against the Flat that stretches back to 2009-10 with a clean sweep 104-72 hiding.
The dominant performance was the second time in the Hawks’ past three games they have won all four rinks against a fellow finalist, having also done so against Bendigo East a fortnight earlier.
The biggest of the Hawks’ rink wins was Tony Ellis defeating Paul Moller 30-17.
Eaglehawk’s Dean Carter defeated Cameron Wilson 24-18 to end the home and away season as the top-ranked rink.
• Bendigo consigned Castlemaine to the wooden spoon, winning a thriller 80-78 to continue its late-season purple patch of form.
It was a fourth win in a row to end the season for Bendigo, which is the only team since the Christmas-New Year break to win all four of its games.
With its defeat Castlemaine has claimed its first wooden spoon since 2008-09 and will be now hoping White Hills doesn’t win the division two flag.
• Only two points separated Golden Square and Inglewood as well in a game where just pride was on the line following Bendigo East’s win the previous night.
Square won 93-91 at home to end its season on a high.
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FINAL LADDER:
Eaglehawk – 185
South Bendigo – 143
Kangaroo Flat – 128
Bendigo East – 126
Golden Square – 118
Bendigo – 110
Inglewood – 108
Castlemaine – 90
WEEK ONE FINALS:
Qualifying – Eaglehawk v South Bendigo
Elimination – Kangaroo Flat v Bendigo East