GRANT Rounding scored his first hat-trick of the season, as the Basingstoke Bison cruised into the last four of the South One play-off.

Rounding's treble set up a semi-final clash with the London Raiders this weekend, with the first leg on Saturday (5.15pm) in Romford followed by the home leg on Sunday (5.30pm).

The Herd went into the game leading 6-0 from the home leg and won the second leg 7-1 for a 13-1 aggregate victory.

The Bison took just 25 seconds to open their account in Gillingham, as Tomas Karpov converted a pass from Kurt Reynolds.

The same player added a second goal on his next shift, as he converted a Josh Smith rebound.

The Herd completed a 3-0 first period, as Rounding netted his first, on the powerplay from Karpov.

For the second session the Bison swapped their netminders with Dan Weller-Evans taking over from Dean Skinns.

Aaron Connolly nearly added a fourth goal for the visitors, but his shot hit the post, before Rounding did score from a nice pass from Ivan Antonov.

Just 90 seconds into the final period, Rounding completed a straight hat-trick to take the score to 5-0.

A great solo strike from Roman Malinik extended the lead further and then Malinik turned provider for Dan Scott to score the Bison's seventh.

Just 19 seconds later, Invicta scored their only goal of the weekend as Steve Osman scored.

The victory sets up a semi-final clash with the London Raiders, who beat the Bracknell Bees 7-6 at the Hive and then at Romford they won 4-2.

The other semi-final will see the Swindon Wildcats take on the Peterborough Phantoms.