The fifth-placed Geelong Supercats put together a comprehensive 25-point victory over the Ballarat GMHBA Miners on Saturday night to survive a second elimination game and progress to the South East Australian Basketball League preliminary finals.

For the Miners, their finals campaign ended at the Minerdome with their biggest defeat and lowest scoring output of the season. 

Cooper-Brown said the lackluster performance fell well short of the players’ capabilities and what they had been able to achieve throughout season.

“We weren’t particularly good tonight… I made mistakes, players made mistakes,” he said after the game. “I need to take responsibility for that one – if we only put 65 points up on the board, that’s me, that’s coaching.”

Cooper-Brown gave credit to Geelong coach Leon O’Neill and the hunger of the opposition players.

“I felt like the interior game was won by Geelong – they were fantastic,” he said.

“They had a great plan, they executed it. They controlled the boards, they controlled the paint.”

The Supercats had five players achieve double digits in scoring including stars DeMarcus Gatlin (22 points and 10 rebounds) and Nathan Herbert (20 points).