Featured image: Taylor Earnshaw
The Waverley Falcons have been a team possessed in the back end of the NBL1 South season and now they are the National Champions on the back of a dominant 97-49 win over the Bendigo Braves on the Sunshine Coast.
The Falcons just weren’t going to be denied and started the game with a 17-2 run and with Bec Cole dominant on the way to 33 points to be named MVP, they made it 13 consecutive wins to be NBL1 South and now National Champions.
The Championship game at UniSC Arena on Sunday to wrap up the NBL National Finals was a contest between the last two NBL1 South title winners with Waverley looking to back up their triumph last Saturday night and Bendigo attempting to win back-to-back national championships.
Waverley ended the regular season in the NBL1 South in spectacular fashion winning 11 of the last 12 games to end up in seventh spot before winning all four finals on the way to the championship last Saturday against the Keilor Thunder.
The Falcons then went on with the momentum to start the National Finals with wins against the Newcastle Falcons of the NBL1 East and Rockingham Flames from the NBL1 West.
Their opponents, Bendigo, might have missed the playoffs but were the defending champions and with Megan McKay and Kelly Wilson leading the way, won into the championship games with wins on the Sunshine Coast against Rockingham and the NBL1 Central's Central Districts Lions.
RECAP SATURDAY NBL1 NATIONAL FINALS | SOUTHERN DISTRICTS V NEWCASTLE
RECAP SATURDAY NBL1 NATIONAL FINALS | WAVERLEY V ROCKINGHAM
RECAP SATURDAY NBL1 NATIONAL FINALS | CENTRAL DISTRICTS V BENDIGO
It was a dominant Grand Final performance from Waverley opening up a lead as big as 53 along with knocking down 16/36 at 44 per cent from three-point range.
Bec Cole was spectacular for Waverley with 23 points in the first half on the to 33 and six rebounds for the game with 4/9 shooting from downtown to be named MVP.
McKenzie Forbes also knocked down 5/11 from deep for 20 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals with Renae Mokrzycki adding 12 points, 13 boards and three assists, and Amelia Todhunter 12 points, eight rebounds and two assists.
It was a tough game for Bendigo who shot 29 per cent from the floor and went 2/23 from three-point territory.
Megan McKay made a stunning return this weekend and finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds for Bendigo with Kasey Burton contributing eight points and seven boards, Kelly Wilson seven points and rebounds, and Cassidy McLean seven points, four boards and four assists.
It was a stunning start from Waverley beginning with a triple from Carley Ernst. Megan McKay answered with a pair of free throws for Bendigo, but the Falcons were a team on a mission and scored the next 14 straight points.
That included triples to Bec Cole and Amelia Todhunter and at 17-2 the Braves desperately needed to do something.
McKay, Kelly Wilson and Caitlin Richardson helped them to their own 8-0 run, but Waverley once more responded with the last eight points of the quarter including the last six to Cole to go into the quarter-time break in control at 25-10.
Just as the Falcons had pushed their lead out to 20 points, suddenly Mckenzie Forbes announced herself into the Grand Final.
She hadn’t scored up to that point, but she made four massive threes to close out the first half and that helped Waverley to the 55-22 lead by the break on 46 per cent field goal shooting to just 23 from Bendigo with their guns McKay and Wilson struggling for 11 points on 4/20 combined.
It was another run of eight straight points early in the second half that saw the Falcons blow the game out further with a 41-point lead, and thanks to another three from Cole just before three quarter-time they were up 39 with one to play.
Cole wasn’t finished yet and hit five quick points to start the fourth quarter to go over 30 for the game.
Then in the dying minutes Meg Crupi came on and had some fun with eight quick points including a couple of threes and Waverley secured the national Championship with the emphatic 48-point win to complete the 13-game winning streak.
WAVERLEY FALCONS 97 (Cole 33, Forbes 20, Mokrzycki 12, Todhunter 12)
BENDIGO BRAVES 49 (McKay 12, Burton 8, McLean 7)
MVP: Bec Cole (Waverley)
