Featured image: Michael Farnell / Sports Imagery
Marshall Nelson and Caitie Jones delivered stunning performances to eliminate their former teams in NBL1 West semi-final wins for the Willetton Tigers and Lakeside Lightning while Ash Isenbarger also lifted the Perry Lakes Hawks to a preliminary final.
GODFREY ALWAYS HAD FULL FAITH FLAMES WOULD FIRE AT RIGHT TIME
JONES FOCUSED ON LAKESIDE SUCCESS BUT DREAMING BIG
RETIRING ROSCOE THANKFUL FOR EVERYTHING BASKETBALL GAVE HER
RECAP NBL1 WEST | FINALS WEEK 1 SATURDAY
WOMEN
Warwick Senators (63) lost to Lakeside Lightning (67)
Caitie Jones has no ill will towards the Warwick Senators where she spent so many years, but she still put her old team to the sword leading the Lakeside Lightning to a stunning 67-63 road semi-final victory.
It always shaped as a fascinating match up at Warwick Stadium with a place in the preliminary final against the Rockingham Flames on the line with the current MVP out there for the Lightning with a two-time MVP winner there for the Senators.
Warwick finished the regular season in second place before a loss last week to the Cockburn Cougars but they still had home court advantage up against a Lightning team who put a rough end to the regular season behind them to hammer the Perth Redbacks by 43 points.
Caitie Jones put up 33 points in that win for Lakeside as she made her return for just the second time as a Lightning player to her old home floor at Warwick Stadium, and she was instrumental in helping Lakeside to the 19-15 lead by the end of the first quarter.
Having led by as much as 11 points in the first quarter, the Lightning then completed an 11-0 run in the second period and would go on to open up a 15-point advantage to put the onus back on the Senators to respond on their home floor.
Warwick did hit back by scoring nine consecutive points themselves to cut the Lightning lead to 38-31 by the half-time interval.
Lakeside pushed back out to a nine-point lead in the third quarter and were still up 52-46 at three quarter-time, but it was always a game destined to go down to the wire.
Nat Burton and Chloe Forster combined for the first four points of the final period to bring Warwick back to within two points when hit a three-pointer soon after the Lightning were back out to a seven-point advantage.
Warwick again closed to within two with six minutes to play following a three-point play to Karly Murphy and then a jumper to Stacey Barr, but once again it was Jones with the steadying bucket for Lakeside.
The Senators kept on coming, though, and four straight points from Forster had her team back level with three minutes to go and the stage was set for a big finish.
Over the next minute Warwick had a host of chances to take a first lead on the night, but couldn’t quite take the opportunities and it was Jones who did up the other end to hit the 30-point barrier against her old side.
All Second Team member Marnelle Garraud then sealed the deal for Lakeside with a huge three-pointer in the last minute and the Lightning won by four points to secure a preliminary final crack at the Rockingham Flames on Saturday night.
It proved a fascinating night on a number of fronts including rough offensive nights for the MVP winners in the contest. Stacey Barr had just five points on 2/15 shooting after missing the end of the regular season with a calf injury and then having three points on 1/14 against Cockburn.
Meanwhile, Teige Morrell is the MVP winner this season and Warwick did a terrific job to limit her to just three field goal attempts in her 35 minutes of court time for three points, 17 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots.
Caitie Jones was instrumental in playing in her first win as a visiting player back at Warwick Stadium delivering 30 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals for Lakeside on the back of shooting 12/23 from the field.
Marnelle Garraud also ended up with 17 points and six rebounds for the Lightning with Tia Ucich contributing nine points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals including a clutch three-point bomb.
Jade Gowland continued the best season of her 85-game career too with another six points and seven rebounds.
It's a tough finish to a season that promised so much for Warwick with the two finals losses on their home floor with Chloe Forster top-scoring once more with 18 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Nat Burton contributed 13 points and six rebounds, Izzy Miotti 11 points, five boards and three assists, and Karly Murphy nine points, 22 rebounds and four assists.
WARWICK SENATORS 63 (Forster 18, Burton 13, Miotti 11)
LAKESIDE LIGHTNING 67 (Jones 30, Garraud 17, Ucich 9)
Perry Lakes Hawks (88) defeated Willetton Tigers (80)
Ash Isenbarger could well have had the best season of her career and that continued with a match-winning performance in a cut-throat semi-final leading the Perry Lakes Hawks to the 88-80 win over the Willetton Tigers.
Both teams are powerhouses of the women's competition with Perry Lakes hunting a first championship since 2017 and eighth overall, and Willetton having played in the last three Grand Finals and 15 overall having won nine titles along the way.
Perry Lakes were home at Bendat Basketball Centre on the back of finishing the regular season in fourth spot before a loss to the Rockingham Flames last week while the Tigers finished fifth and won at home last week against the Joondalup Wolves.
It was a hot start from the Hawks with Ash Isenbarger on fire with the home team going on an 11-0 run in the first quarter to be up by as much as 12, and still 27-21 by the end of one.
Willetton were able to turn things around in the second period with their own 11-0 scoring run to even grab the lead briefly, and by half-time that was the lead for the Tigers at 47-45.
Willetton were attempting to stay alive in the quest to reach a fourth straight Grand Final in the women's competition but Perry Lakes fired back in the third frame with 22 points to 12.
The Hawks then maintained control for a lot of the fourth quarter and were leading by as much as nine points even with the Tigers getting back within two points thanks to Claire Jacobs with 3:30 to go.
Perry Lakes pulled away once more and it was a three from Grace Stone who had a rough shooting night that was the dagger blow before the home team scored the eventual eight-point win to book in a preliminary final spot on Saturday against the Cockburn Cougars.
Ash Isenbarger was outstanding in the win for Perry Lakes as she continues some of the best form of her 238-game career across two clubs.
She finished the night with 26 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks on 11/17 shooting from the field and 4/6 from three-point territory.
Grace Stone might have only gone 6/24 from the field for the game but hit some big shots when it mattered on her way to 18 points, three rebounds and two assists.
Millie McCarthy also had 12 points, 10 assists, three rebounds and three steals for Perry Lakes with captain Maddy Dennis contributing 10 points, six boards, five assists and three steals, and Mia Satie nine points, seven rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots.
It's an earlier finish to a season than the Willetton women are accustomed to with captain and 243-game veteran Desiree Kelley top-scoring with 20 points and six rebounds with 5/9 three-point shooting.
Melisa Brcaninovic added 19 points and six rebounds, Kiara Waite 15 points and five boards, Jillian Archer 13 points and seven rebounds, and Claire Jacobs 12 points.
PERRY LAKES HAWKS 88 (Isenbarger 26, Stone 18, McCarthy 12)
WILLETTON TIGERS 80 (Kelley 20, Brcaninovic 19, Waite 15)
MEN
Willetton Tigers (108) defeated Rockingham Flames (103)
Marshall Nelson thought he would be playing for the Rockingham Flames still in 2024 and he sure made a statement against them with the best performance of his career with an incredible 48 points to lead the Willetton Tigers to a stunning 108-103 victory.
The Tigers were staring down the barrel at another straight sets finals exit on the back of losing their qualifying final to the Joondalup Wolves by 18 points last week and then falling 17 points down by quarter-time to the Flames.
It was a Rockingham team that Nelson was a key member of in the 2022 NBL1 West and National Championship triumphs along with the team that made a National Finals decider last year, and he was back on deck for 2024.
Until he wasn’t. A change of circumstances during the off-season meant he ended up landing at Willetton and it's amazing how fate works, that he was playing for the Tigers in a cut-throat semi-final on Thursday night against the Flames at Willetton Basketball Stadium.
With Devondrick Walker, Jeremy Combs and Gorjok Gak all up and going at the right time of the year, the Flames finished the regular season winning six of their last nine games and then hammered the East Perth Eagles by 23 points to open the finals last Saturday night.
Rockingham then continued that momentum into Thursday night's semi-final by scoring nine straight points after Willetton did start the game with Marshall Nelson finishing at the rim on the pass from Michael Dupree.
The Flames continued the fast start the rest of the first quarter to be leading 29-12 by quarter-time and the Tigers had the job ahead of them to get back into the contest.
That's when Nelson put his new team on his back and by half-time he had 23 points to his name and he helped the Tigers to 32 points in the second term but it was still Rockingham leading 56-44 at the half-time break.
Willetton continued to whittle down the deficit and were back within seven by three quarter-time before Nelson inspired the Tigers to a remarkable fourth quarter with the seasons on the line for both clubs.
Willetton would end up scoring 37 points in the fourth period with Nelson delivering 18 of them in a simply dazzling display as the Tigers ran over the top of the Flames for the five-point win ahead of a preliminary final now in Geraldton against the Buccaneers on Saturday night.
Marshall Nelson is no stranger to putting the dagger into his former teams having pulled off a remarkable late performance to help Rockingham snatch a win on his first trip back to Belmont Oasis against the Redbacks.
Thursday night was his third time playing against Rockingham this year for Willetton having already had a combined 37 points and 14 assists in those two regular season wins, and he took things up a remarkable gear.
It will remain hard to top as the standout performance in a career that has now spanned 164 games as he finished with 48 points on the back of shooting 16/24 from the field, 8/12 from three-point range and 8/11 from the foul line.
His back court running mate Michael Dupree also had 22 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals with Damien Scott adding 13 points and three rebounds, Roosevelt Williams Jr eight points, five boards and three assists, and Michael Vigor six points and nine assists in his 302nd game.
It was a tough way for Rockingham's season to end with two-time MVP Devondrick Walker putting up 27 points and five assists which included 6/11 three-point shooting.
Captain Ryan Godfrey added 23 points and five assists with Gorjok Gak contributing 17 points and nine rebounds, Jeremy Combs 15 points, six boards, five assists and four steals, and Travis Durnin 13 points and five rebounds.
WILLETTON TIGERS 108 (Nelson 48, Dupree 22, Scott 13)
ROCKINGHAM FLAMES 103 (Walker 27, Godfrey 23, Gak 17)
