The 2009 National Basketball League (NBL) Grand Final series will be an all-Victorian affair after the South Dragons defeated the Townsville Crocodiles to advance to the title round, where they will face cross-town rivals the Melbourne Tigers in a classic one versus two showdown.
The Dragons, who took out the minor premiership with a league-best regular season record of 22-8, defeated Townsville in the deciding Game Three of their Semi-Final series, 101-78, at Melbourne’s Hisense Arena tonight.
The league’s reigning Champions and this season’s number two seed, the Tigers, had previously advanced to the Grand Final series after defeating the New Zealand Breakers 2-0 in their own best-of-three Semi-Final series.
The Dragons’ victory tonight sets-up a clash of the top two ranked teams in the league, and the first all-Victorian NBL Grand Final since 1997, when the South-East Melbourne Magic (led by South Dragons current coach Brian Goorjian) defeated the Melbourne Tigers 2-1 in a classic three-game series.
