Here's how the NBL1 men's conference finals were won
Breaking down how West Adelaide, Canberra, Southern Districts, Sandringham, and Geraldton claimed their titles.
Credit: Michael Farnell (@sportsimageryau) via NBL1
With another year of NBL1 conference finals now complete, here’s everything that stood out over the past two weeks from the biggest games of the season.
Central
After finishing the regular season in fifth, having started 2-4, West Adelaide piggybacked on Cameron Huefner’s mid-year addition to go on a stellar run. Included in the playoff run was a wire to wire win over preseason favourites Forestville, a team that were never the unbeatable type that they were portrayed.
One only had to watch Keanu Rasmussen in an NBL1 setting to see that he’s as impactful as any player in the conference. With his elite athleticism and ability to beat whoever off the dribble, there’s shades of Nathan Sobey, capable of leading the Bearcats to a win over anyone.
Rasmussen or Lat Mayen could have just as easily won Grand Final MVP, but Huefner received the recognition in the end, with West Adelaide certainly having the best three players on the floor, an obvious recipe for success.
Huefner threw down one of the dunks of the year, attacking a closeout as he regularly did throughout the game with success. He scored 22 points in the final three quarters showing off some versatility to his scoring package as well.
Amongst his 26 points, Mayen had his own dunk of the night contender as well.
For Central Districts, Koen Sapwell couldn’t get his shot to fall until too late, and both he and Efemena Abogidi really struggled in either finishing or creating advantages against a stingy Bearcats half court defence. Captain Hamish Staude drew two chrages. Instead the Lions were left to rely on transition play and offensive rebounding via backup Clayton Jewell and the steady play of Jack Stanwix.
East
Canberra were back in familiar territory and made up for last season’s Grand Final loss. Derek Emelifeonwu also got redemption, being named game MVP this time after struggling in the decider last season against Maitland where he registered zero points and zero assists to half time. Against Illawarra, he looked a completely different player, with some seriously slippery shot-creation and shot-making.
Gunners mainstay Glenn Morrison was the other major difference maker, establishing early dominance inside as well as late with the game on the line, including a kick out pass to James Toohey for the dagger three after drawing extra attention.
Illawarra entered the game with an expectation that they would find a clear advantage in transition points, but at half time actually trailed in that area with just three points. The third quarter however had a shift with Kobe McDowell-White and Todd Blanchfield piling on a chunk of early scores in the open floor, threatening to take the game away from Canberra.
Will Mayfield had struggled offensively throughout, with just two first half points, but his playmaking became a factor as the game wore on, finishing with nine assists overall and seven second half points. Combined with Canberra controlling the boards, Morrison’s size, and Emelifeonwu’s creativity, the Gunners had too much for Illawarra this time.
North
Southern Districts finished the season 10-1 to claim the title, sweeping the best of three game series over Brisbane.
"Winning's super-duper hard, head coach Peter Crawford explained. “It's not easy to win, so to get one is super special, especially the men's program which hasn't had a whole lot of success since 2006... We had our back against the walls from like about six or seven weeks out from the end of the season. So, it was just an awesome reward for a lot of hard work.”
With Sam McDaniel absent from the series, all eyes were on Tamuri Wigness with an opportunity to put an exclamation point on his comeback from injury. It wasn’t without its challenges, but Wigness deservedly claimed Grand Final MVP honours, regularly blowing by defenders with his elite speed and dropping off passes to his bigs.
In game one, Wigness had to work through some serious turnover issues, coughing up the ball too often in the first three quarters in particular. With no McDaniel, the Capitals were also struggling for scoring efficiency, relying too often on complementary personnel to create or finish plays.
The pivotal moment on the Friday night came with 5:26 to play with Crawford calling timeout and a sub made for Andre Ugrinic to come in for Matt Hodgson. Ugrinic would score immediately off a Jones short-roll pass, who had slid up to the five spot. The Spartans would put on an out of nowhere 30-10 run to close the game with Jones coming alive as an offensive threat, the ball movement of Southern Districts improving, as well as the defensive pressure.
Despite not being at his best throughout, Wigness would finish with 29 points and 8 assists, making key plays down the stretch that included an off the bounce three, a put back off his own missed free throw, and a steal on Isaih Tueta.
Game two was all about Jones early on, with the young big scoring 15 points in the first quarter. Wigness too was looking comfortable, routinely getting a runway to the rim. The two combined for a highlight score on the half time buzzer after Wigness returned to the floor after sitting with foul trouble. The bench had played well to maintain a lead.
Brisbane’s reliance on Matt Johns’ hook shot and paint finishes was a little jarring, given his normally reluctant offensive game, but it was seemingly a necessary adjustment to try and find enough offence to compete. The Capitals didn’t hit enough spot up threes to punish the Spartans defence and Kai Bloom couldn’t replicate his game one offensive spark in game two.
Even with their challenges, Brisbane still had a significant run in them, winning the third quarter 22-13 with Tueta leading looking like leading his team to an unlikely victory after finishing a trademark floater of his with just a minute on the clock to put his team in front and force a Spartans timeout.
Jones and Max Kerle had strong patches throughout the series but it was again the role players who stood up for Southern Districts to help them retake the lead. On the next play, it was Darcy Ryder attacking the closeout and finishing with the reverse layup after Wigness had drawn two bodies.
Brisbane’s next string of possessions would lead to heartbreak, with Tueta turning the ball over trying to force the ball into the roller, Ugrinic then converting a put back on the other end for Southern Districts, and the Capitals failing to inbound the ball on the next play.
Wigness’ on court interview summarised the series, acknowledging that while he was a heavy contributor, he wasn’t quite at his best, and the fact that he needed big plays from his bench to complete the job.
“Our bench, a bunch of dogs. Even with the performance I had that game, the way that our bench performed, I have to give it up to the boys."
Crawford reflected on Wigness’ career arc again during the week, having re-established himself as an NBL quality player.
“He’s kind of really done a good job of playing at two speeds,” said Crawford. He’s spent three years working on his jump shot. I think he’s proved to everyone that he can shoot and that he is a legit shooter, which was probably the scout report on him. His next level is to be an elite game management point guard... He can shoot, he can score, he’s got the pace and he can defend.”
South
Melbourne entered this matchup on a bit of a fairytale run with Andrew Gaze and the Tigers faithful riding a late season surge that included a couple of playoff comebacks. Sandringham on the other hand had overcome a 0-6 start to the season, but with a full lineup were quite obviously the most formidable roster on paper in the conference.
Plenty of defensive attention was thrown at Ben Ayre, with Melbourne playing him aggressively out of ball screens, and forcing nine Sabres turnovers in the first half. The Tigers in comparison had committed zero in the first 20 minutes.
Jack Purchase was showing off his elite shot-making early on and Harry Froling was doing his best Kevin Love or Nikola Jokić impersonation with a full court pass to the hot hand.
Sandringham progressively figured things out, with Ayre easily creating advantages for his teammates, particularly in the fourth quarter for his forwards who benefited from the attention he was receiving.
The Sabres committed just four turnovers after half time, putting together a 64-34 run to leave no question as to who was the best team down south.
Koppens claimed MVP honours for a four quarter performance, whilst Machar displayed the enormous growth in his game over the past couple of years. Barlow, 42-years-old in October, added another chapter to his incredible career, with it fantastic to see and hear his pleasure at the breakthrough win for Sandringham.
West
Geraldton claimed another title in front of over 6,000 people at RAC Arena on the back of the defensive playmaking of Johny Narkle and a little more depth.
Warwick would finish 9-47 on three-point attempts, with Elijah Pepper regularly drawing extra attention and the ball swinging around the perimeter only for the misses to pile up. As the game wore on it looked to be on the Senators’ mind as they juggled the idea of whether to persevere or attack the closeout.
Akeem Springs did a very credible job of making Pepper work hard for his points (11-35 FG), with Narkle in particular providing help throughout. His timing, length, and reading of the game on defence has been a strength for years and again stood out throughout this one to offset a few sloppy turnovers on the other end.
With just over a minute to play, Narkle made one of the biggest plays of the game on offence too, attacking a Todd Withers closeout, and converting the and-one opportunity to give Geraldton a four-point lead.
The final minute and a half had plenty of drama with Pepper needing to go off with blood on his finger and shorts, unable to check back into the game on two separate occasions as the issue was dealt with. A silly turnover and then foul from Verle Williams allowed Pepper to return on one occasion which luckily for Bucc’s fans didn’t cost them.
Pepper would go on to hit a classy three to pull the margin back to one, before some clutch free throws from Geraldton, Cody Ellis flinging the ball at the rim thinking he would draw a foul call, and one final unsuccessful shot attempt from Cooper Creek that would put a full stop on a thrilling Grand Final.
Outside Narkle (21 points, nine rebounds, four steals, three blocks, three assists) and Springs’ quality two-way play, Liam Hunt provided plenty early on before a knee injury and foul trouble ended his night, whilst Williams’ electric early stint in particular was pivotal in establishing an early lead — Geraldton were +11 in his first quarter stint.