The Rockingham Flames kept their NBL1 National Championship defence alive opening up with a Friday night win in Perth over the Ipswich Force with NBL1 West counterparts the Geraldton Buccaneers and the NBL1 South's Knox Raiders also victorious.
The teams to meet in Sunday's Championship Game at HBF Arena Joondalup in Perth will now come out of those three winning teams on Friday night.
The National Finals got underway with the Knox Raiders defeating the West Adelaide Bearcats 114-61 before the Rockingham Flames beat the Ipswich Force 106-88, and the Geraldton Buccaneers downed the Sutherland Sharks 98-76.
Saturday's men's match ups now see Geraldton play Ipswich, Knox take on Sutherland, and Rockingham play West Adelaide.
DAY 1 MEN
Raiders shine in statement win over Bearcats
The NBL1 South champion Knox Raiders might only have seven players for the National Finals, but they are going to take some stopping after opening up with a 114-61 win in Perth against the West Adelaide Bearcats.
Both teams were fresh off securing the conference championship last Saturday night with the Raiders winning the NBL1 South title in spectacular fashion beating the Sandringham Sabres in the Grand Final.
Meanwhile, the Bearcats won the NBL1 Central title with the Grand Final triumph against the Forestville Eagles.
Neither team has arrived in Perth with full rosters available with Knox having just the seven players including being without Deng Acouth and Mason Peatling.
West Adelaide also had just two of their championship winning starting five available with the absence of NBL trio Mitch McCarron, Anthony Drmic and Lachlan Olbrich.
However, with Ke'Jhan Feagin, Wayne Stewart Jr and Bailey Nunn leading the charge, the Raiders weren't going to be denied and have clearly come west on a mission to add the national title to the NBL1 South championship in 2023.
The Raiders scored 12 consecutive points to open up a 10-point lead already by quarter-time and then continued to dominate making it a 14-0 run to start the second term.
Eventually Knox would outscore West Adelaide 26 points to 11 in the quarter to lead by as much as 28 points and go into the half-time break in control leading 54-29.
It was more of the same throughout the second half including some spectacular finishes at the rim from Madut Akec. The Raiders would end up outscoring the Bearcats 25 points to 14 in the third quarter, and 35 to 18 on the way to the 53-point win.
That victory will put Knox in a strong position to play for the championship game now on Saturday night while the Bearcats will look to hit back against their next opponent in 24 hours.
Bailey Nunn was named Grand Final MVP last week for Knox in the NBL1 South championship triumph against Sandringham, and the 19-year-old who is heading to Sacramento State continued that form to open the National Finals.
Nunn finished the game with 24 points, three assists, two rebounds and two steals on the back of knocking down 4/6 from three-point territory.
Ke'Jhan Feagin came up huge in the championship too and kept his form going with 25 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and five steals while knocking down 5/9 from behind the three-point line.
Wayne Stewart Jr came up huge as well for Knox with 29 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks on 12/13 field goal shooting while Madut Akec contributed 19 points, four boards, three assists and three steals.
Austin Rapp also ended up with eight points, five rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocked shots.
It was tough going for West Adelaide without three of their championship stars with Fraser Roxburgh top-scoring with 12 points, four assists and two rebounds.
Nik DeSantis added 12 points, six rebounds and three assists and Matthew Trandafil eight points but it was Lachlan Hunter who top-scored with 18 points and five rebounds on 7/13 shooting from the floor and 4/4 at the foul line.
NO WAY MADUT AKEC ?
— NBL1 (@NBL1) August 18, 2023
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Flames keep National Championship defence alive
The Rockingham Flames might not have had the NBL1 West season they hoped, but still have a National Championship to defend and that started on Friday with the 88-74 win against the Ipswich Force.
Rockingham won both the NBL1 West and National Championships a year ago, and went on to finish two games clear on top of the NBL1 West table at the end of the regular season before being shocked at home by the Joondalup Wolves in the preliminary final.
They still had booked in a place at the National Finals, though, thanks to that win in Melbourne last year and with a full roster available including dual MVP Devondrick Walker and three-time NBL champion Tom Jervis, they were going to throw everything into it.
Their first opponents were the NBL1 North champion Ipswich who pulled off a stunning Grand Final Series victory against the Gold Coast Rollers coming back from losing Game 1 to win the next two matches by a combined 45 points.
That saw Ipswich make history with the club's first championship but their job in Perth at the National Finals was made tougher with the absence of Brisbane Bullets superstar and Grand Final MVP Nathan Sobey.
However, it was still a team featuring NBL experienced big men Matt Hodgson and Deng Deng, and some more than handy players including championship captain Jason Ralph, Michael Fleming, Cameron Goldfinch and Atem Atem.
So Rockingham weren’t about to be handed anything despite having a handy home crowd to support them with their fans having travelled north to Joondalup.
It was a high octane opening to the contest too with the teams combining for 56 points with Rockingham leading 30-26 by quarter-time.
Despite the Flames then pushing out to a nine-point lead in the second period, Ipswich scored the next seven points to work back into the contest and to cut the Rockingham lead to 53-50 at half-time in an entertaining affair.
Rockingham was then able to blow the game wide open in the third quarter putting up 31 points to just 20 from Ipswich to lead by as much as 16, with that lead growing to 20 in the fourth period and settling at 18 by the final buzzer.
Marshall Nelson produced a spectacular performance for Rockingham to finish with 28 points, 11 rebounds and six assists on shooting 11/19 from the floor and 3/7 from behind the three-point line.
Import forward Jeremy Combs was impressive as well with 27 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and three steals with captain Ryan Godfrey contributing 17 points with 4/9 three-point shooting.
Devondrick Walker had an uncharacteristically quiet night with 12 points, seven assists, three steals and two rebounds on 4/12 shooting with Travis Durnin adding eight points and four rebounds, and Tom Jervis two points, 13 rebounds, three blocks and two assists.
Deng Deng delivered some heroics to lead Ipswich to the NBL1 North championship and he continued that good form on Friday night even if his frustration did boil over the longer the game went.
He finished with 27 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two steals with Cameron Goldfinch adding 22 points and five boards, Matt Hodgson 13 points, six rebounds and two blocks, and captain Jason Ralph 10 points, 10 assists and five rebounds.
Marshall Nelson is getting spicy with it ??
— NBL1 (@NBL1) August 18, 2023
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Buccs set up tilt at National Championship
Six days after both Geraldton and Sutherland celebrated their respective conference championships, they locked horns to open the National Finals on Friday with the Buccaneers beating the Sharks 85-67.
The Buccs went one better than last year in the NBL1 West when they made up for losing the Grand Final to the Rockingham Flames by winning the club's third championship last Saturday night with the come from behind win against the Joondalup Wolves.
They jumped on the bus back to Perth as a result this weekend for a crack at winning the National Championship with their first up opponents the NBL1 East champion Sutherland.
The Sharks finished the regular season in fifth place but wins against the Norths Bears, Centre of Excellence and ultimately the Maitland Mustangs saw them claim the NBL1 East championship and book in a trip to Perth for the National Finals.
Geraldton arrived with a full strength championship winning team too while Sutherland did head west without Adrian Cabrera who played a pivotal part in their NBL1 East title victory.
The Buccaneers were able to produce a strong finish to the opening quarter to be leading 25-17 after one.
The lead for the Buccs then blew out to 20 in the second quarter and by half-time they remained in control leading 52-35.
Sutherland weren’t going down without a fight, though, and did get back within nine late in the third quarter when Aaron Waban knocked down a three-pointer.
They wouldn’t get any closer, though, with three-point daggers for Geraldton from Aaron Ralph and Shaun Stewart putting the Buccs back in control as they went on to score the eventual 22-point victory to claim six of the seven points on offer for the game.
The emerging Johny Narkle kept his hot form going from being the Grand Final MVP for the Buccaneers last Saturday night by producing another 27 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots with 9/18 shooting from the floor and 3/7 from deep.
Sydney Kings NBL championship winner and two-time NBL1 West title winner Zac Gattorna also delivered 25 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks for Geraldton while Malik Meunier added 11 points, six assists and five boards.
Shaun Stewart added eight points, eight assists and three rebounds, Liam Hunt eight points, six boards, three assists, three blocks and two steals, and Fletcher Klasztorny eight points and four rebounds.
Lochlan Hutchison delivered 17 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals for Sutherland with captain Geoff Gerlach contributing 15 points, eight boards and three assists, and Marquel Beasley 13 points and three assists.
Jordan Mitchell also contributed 11 points, three rebounds and two steals, and Aaron Waban nine points with 3/3 three-point shooting.
HOW DID MARQUEL BEASLEY DO THAT ?
— NBL1 (@NBL1) August 18, 2023
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