Former Ballarat Miner Nathan Sobey has capped off his stellar 2021 National Basketball League (NBL) season with an MVP nomination.
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The Brisbane Bullets star finished the season averaging 21.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.8 assists a game while shooting 45.8 percent from the field, 38.2 percent from the three-point line and 88.7 percent from the free throw line.
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Sobey was nominated alongside Perth's Bryce Cotton and Illawarra's Tyler Harvey.
The winner will be announced at the Andrew Gaze MVP Awards night on Wednesday, June 16.
Sobey enjoyed a superb season from start to finish, scoring 25 points or more on 11 occasions and hitting four or more threes nine times.
He traded blows with Cotton in the battle for the league leading scorer, eventually falling into second place with 21.1 points per game.
Sobey's Brisbane Bullets just missed out on finals qualification, sitting in sixth, just one game behind fourth placed South East Melbourne Phoenix.
Meanwhile, former Miner Tim Coenraad and his Illawarra Hawks teammates have begun their finals campaign with a bang, beating second placed Perth by two points in the first game of their best of three series.
Playing at RAC Arena in Perth, one of the toughest road trips in the league, the Hawks came back from six points down at half-time to snatch a 74-72 win.
Coenraad was superb off the bench, playing 24 minutes, finishing with 10 points, three rebounds and three makes from long range.
It's been a solid return for the 36-year-old, who had initially retired from the NBL in November 2020.
He returned in early May of this year to replace the injured Cam Bairstow.
Illawarra now return home to the WIN Entertainment Centre on Saturday night to try and close out the series with a win.
If it doesn't, game three will take place in Perth next week.
If it does, the Hawks will win through to the best of five grand final series.
They'll play the winner of Melbourne United and South East Melbourne Phoenix.
Current United and Miners point guard Sam Short won't be involved in the series against the Phoenix, the 23-year-old still stuck in Melbourne.
Short was travelling back from Mount Gambier with the Miners following their two-point win when United flew to Brisbane to play the Bullets three weeks ago.
They haven't returned, now in Sydney to play a semi-final series.
Due to the lockdown in Melbourne, Short was unable to join the team and is still stuck in Victoria.
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