The Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and North Bears booked their places in the NBL1 East Women's semi finals with contrasting victories to open the playoffs on Saturday.
The opening weekend of the finals in the NBL1 East Women's competition featured the two elimination finals to determine who would join the Sutherland Sharks and Albury-Wodonga Bandits in the semi finals.
With their semi-final opponents sitting back and waiting having earned the first week off after finishing in the top two positions, the other four NBL1 East qualified teams locked horns in the elimination finals on Saturday.
That saw the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles claim a thriller against the Newcastle Falcons 78-75 on the road.
Alex Delaney delivered 27 points, five rebounds and four assists in the win for the Sea Eagles with Kim Hodge adding 19 points and eight boards.
Nicole Munger put in a huge performance despite the loss for Newcastle with 32 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists.
It wasn’t quite as close in the other elimination final with the North Bears putting a hammering on the Illawarra Hawks at home to win 88-41.
Emily Simons produced 25 points and nine rebounds in the big win for the Bears with Carla Pittman adding 14 points, Riley Evans 12 and Jasmine Forcadilla 10.
Tyler Scaife top-scored for Illawarra with 10 points.
The semi finals will now take place next Saturday between the Sea Eagles and Sharks, and Bears and Bandits to determine who plays in the NBL1 East Grand Final for 2022 on Sunday August 28.
NBL1 EAST – 2022 WOMEN'S SEASON
ELIMINATION FINALS – SATURDAY
NEWCASTLE FALCONS 75 lost to MANLY-WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES 78
The Newcastle Falcons and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles put their seasons on the line at Newcastle Basketball Stadium in an elimination final battle in the NBL1 East on Saturday afternoon.
The Falcons earned the rights to host the elimination final having finished the regular season in third position with a 14-6 record while the Sea Eagles were in sixth at 12-8 having locked in that last playoff position.
After a nice early start from the home team, Manly-Warringah soon got rolling going on a 10-0 scoring run to open up a seven-point lead before clinging to a 21-19 edge by quarter-time.
It was the Falcons who took back control in the second quarter by outscoring the Sea Eagles 20 points to 12 which saw the home team take a 39-33 edge into the half-time break.
Newcastle pushed its lead out to eight early in the second half but Manly-Warringah were then able to build some momentum to whittle away that deficit, and to end up leading by as much as six themselves.
The Sea Eagles then turned that lead into a double-figure advantage in the fourth term and then held firm despite a strong finish from Newcastle to end up winning 78-75.
The win means Manly-Warringah advance to take on the Sutherland Sharks in a semi-final while the season is over for the Falcons.
Alex Delaney delivered 27 points, five rebounds and four assists for the Sea Eagles in the win while Kim Hodge contributed 19 points and eight boards, Zoey Miller 11 points and three rebounds, and Antonia Henderson eight points, five boards and four assists.
Nicole Munger did all she could to inspire the Falcons on their home floor finishing with 32 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and two steals on 13/22 shooting from the floor.
Emily Foy added 17 points and three rebounds for Newcastle, Kate Kingham 10 points, and Megan Johnson 10 points and four rebounds.
NORTHS BEARS 88 defeated ILLAWARRA HAWKS 41
The Norths Bears were in no mood for mercy on the Illawarra Hawks in their elimination final battle on Saturday in the NBL1 East at North Sydney Indoor Sports Centre.
The two teams were fighting to advance to a semi-final next week against the Albury-Wodonga Bandits with the Bears having finished the regular season in fourth position with a 14-6 record while the Hawks were just behind in fifth at 12-8.
The Bears had home court advantage and didn’t take long to take charge on Saturday putting up 11 straight points to race out to a 17-point lead already by quarter-time having held Illawarra to just the six points.
It was more of the same in the second quarter as Norths went on another 12-0 scoring streak to end up leading by a mammoth 35 points in the second term on the back of 23 points to seven to go into the half-time break on top 46-13.
While Illawarra managed to outscore what they did in the entire first half in the third quarter by scoring 17 points, Norths pushed further ahead at the same time with another 27 points.
The lead got out to as high as 48 points in the fourth term and the Bears went on to win 88-41 to book in a semi-final match up with the Albury-Wodonga Bandits.
It was a remarkably dominant performance from the Bears as they pulled down 66 rebounds to 28 for the game while shooting 46.0 per cent from the floor opposed to 23.8 per cent from the Hawks.
Emily Simons put up 25 points and nine rebounds on 11/18 shooting for the Bears with Carla Pitman contributing 14 points and seven boards on 6/8 shooting.
Riley Evans added 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals, Jasmine Forcadilla 10 points and four assists, and Sarah Schicher eight points, 14 rebounds and two blocks.
Tyler Scaife top-scored for Illawarra with 10 points while Rebecca Abel finished with nine points, three assists and three steals, and Georgia Ohrdorf seven points, five boards, three assists, three steals and two blocks.
