THE Newcastle Falcons men's team clinched an NBL1 East play-off berth with a confidence-boosting 86-68 victory over last-placed Bankstown Bruins at Newcastle Basketball Stadium on Sunday.
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Newcastle's first win since July 16 ended a four-game losing streak and ensured they would join the Falcons women's team in the NBL1 play-offs later this month.
The Falcons are fourth with a 12-8 win-loss record with two games remaining in the regular season against fourth-placed Norths (13-8) at home next Saturday and sixth-placed Sutherland (11-9) at Sutherland next Sunday.
Even if Newcastle lose both games and drop to 12-10, they cannot finish any lower than sixth because seventh-placed Inner West Bulls are 9-11 and cannot finish any better than 11-11.
Winning one or both games next weekend could push the Falcons as high as second, depending on results from other last-round games.
"Defensively we were better than we've been in our last few games," Newcastle coach Peter Astley said.
"It was important to get the win obviously, but it was important that we got back to playing the way we're capable of playing, and it looked like we were enjoying ourselves and having some fun again.
"We still have to get better because we've got two more tough games ahead of us next weekend."
Newcastle led 29-23 at quarter-time and 49-40 by the half, but the Bruins trimmed the deficit to 65-59 heading into the final period.
Bankstown pulled within three points early in the fourth quarter, and trailed 69-65 with seven minutes remaining, but the Falcons seized control with a 15-0 run as they held the Bruins scoreless for six minutes.
Led by Myles Cherry (21 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals) and Matur Maluach (20 points, four rebounds, two steals), Newcastle had four players score in double figures.
Ryan Beisty posted a 17-point, 17-rebound double-double, adding six assists and two steals, Jaidyn Goodwin played all 40 minutes and produced a stat line of 15 points, eight assists, three rebounds and a steal, and JaShaun Smith chipped in with nine points and eight rebounds off the bench.
In a game that had no bearing on their NBL1 East ladder position, the Falcons women's team were pipped 74-72 by Basketball Australia's Centre of Excellence in a wild-card match on Saturday night.
Newcastle had to win the game by 39 points to displace Queensland team Southern Districts Spartans as the wild-card team to contest the NBL1 National Championships against the NBL1 East, West, North, South and Central champions in Melbourne next month.
The Falcons can still qualify for nationals but only if they win the NBL1 East title later this month.
Newcastle led CoE 41-32 at half-time on Saturday but were out-scored 42-31 in the second half.
In a see-sawing final few minutes, Nicole Munger's three-point shooting kept the Falcons in the game but the CoE sealed their win from the free-throw line.
Munger scored a game-high 26 points to go with nine rebounds, five assists and a steal.
In her final game for Newcastle before heading to the United States to begin her college career, Chyra Evans had 23 points, six rebounds and two steals against her former CoE teammates.
Newcastle junior Saffron Shiels only played 16 minutes for CoE, scoring two points and adding three assists and two rebounds.
Sitting fourth on the NBL1 ladder with a 13-5 record, the Falcons play third-placed Norths (14-5) and second-placed Sutherland (14-4) in their last two games of the regular season next weekend to determine where they will finish heading into the play-offs.
