They thrashed the St Kilda Saints 99-65 in Saturday’s second-to-last week of the regular season, snapping a six-game winning streak by the Saints in the process.
While not set in stone, it is likely the pair will meet again in the semifinals.
The Bombers were a significantly stronger outfit than they have been for much of the season.
National league players Robbie Coman, Caleb Smiler and Tom Cowie all returned to the lineup, although Matthew Bardsley was absent.
It was a not a weak Saints team either. Star trio Mike Ruske, James Ross and Lawson Morris-Whyte were all present.
The Bombers were just better.
Coman led them with 27 points, while Patrick Tipene and Hamish Robertson had 19 and 15 points respectively.
Jamie MacDonald led the Saints with 23 points, although no-one else managed more than 10.
The Bombers started strongly as Hamish Robertson popped in a pair of three-pointers, while Coman was equally prominent early.
Meanwhile, the Saints struggled to get their offence going, and City Rise powered to a 28-15 lead at quarter-time.
MacDonald began to find his groove through the second quarter, hitting a handful of shots to get the Saints back to 48-37.
But it was as close as they got.
Coman responded to give the Bombers a 52-37 halftime lead, before a hot start to the third quarter from Tipene extended the Bombers’ lead past 20.
At that point the game became all Bombers.
Coman and Cowie came into their own, taking an 80-54 lead at the final break, which kept growing through the fourth quarter.
In other games Mitchell Hughan had 36 points as the Mid City Magic beat the Mid City Lions 76-68, securing outright top spot on the table.
Varsity won the battle of the bottom two, beating the Andy Bay Falcons 94-83.
Jack Hollingworth continued his classy season with 31 points, while Toby Lewis had 26 points for the Falcons.
The results leave the semifinal match-ups wide open.
The Magic will finish top and face the fourth-placed finisher, with the other three spots to be filled by the Saints (nine wins), Bombers (eight wins) and Lions (eight wins).
If the Saints beat the Lions next week, they will finish second and face the third-placed Bombers, regardless of whether the Bombers beat the Falcons — as the Bombers have the tie-break advantage over the Lions.
If the Lions beat the Saints, and the Bombers lose to the Falcons, the Lions will finish second and face the third-placed Saints, as the Lions will take the tie-break advantage over the Saints.
If both the Lions and Bombers win next week, it would create a three-way tie between the teams on nine wins.
In that situation the Bombers would finish second with a 4-2 regular season record within the tie, while the Saints would finish third and Lions fourth.
