Featured image: Jack Riddiford | jackriddiford.creative
Their NBL1 South championship defence might not have gone to plan, but the Knox Raiders have given themselves a chance to win back-to-back National Finals with the dominant 90-66 Saturday win over the Eltham Wildcats.
It was a battle on the Sunshine Coast between last year's and this year's NBL1 South champions with both Knox and Eltham making winning starts on Friday night to the 2024 National Finals.
The Raiders might have been knocked out in the first week of the NBL1 South finals a month ago, but geared up to defend their national crown and opened up at Caloundra Indoor Stadium beating the NBL1 East's Maitland Mustangs by 18 points.
Meanwhile, just six days after claiming the NBL1 South championship for 2024 and despite missing South East Melbourne Phoenix NBL pair Owen Foxwell and Angus Glover, Eltham beat the NBL1 Central's Forestville Eagles by six points too.
That meant the two NBL1 South teams opened proceedings on Saturday at UniSC Arena with a spot in Sunday's Grand Final on the line. It was the fresh and full strength Knox who proved too good to end up winning by 24 points to remain a chance to go back-to-back.
RECAP FRIDAY NBL1 NATIONAL FINALS | MACKAY V MANDURAH
RECAP FRIDAY NBL1 NATIONAL FINALS | FORESTVILLE V ELTHAM
RECAP FRIDAY NBL1 NATIONAL FINALS | MAITLAND V KNOX
With both teams coming into the contest coming off Friday night wins and also being no stranger to one another coming from the same conference, it shaped as a fascinating contest. It was a tight opening quarter with both teams having their time in front.
In the end, the Raiders managed to be leading by four at quarter-time before they completed a run of 11 straight points into the second period to push out to a 13-point lead.
Knox were leading 46-35 by the half-time break before the defending national champs continued to build on that lead through the second half.
The lead got out to 21 points in the third stanza and 25 in the fourth on the way to the eventual 24-point victory to lock in their spot in Sunday's championship decider.
It was once again the all-round contributions that Knox received that was key to the win with last year's championship captain, Grand Final MVP and National Finals MVP KJ Feagin putting up 16 points, seven assists and two rebounds.
"It's a blessing and just a shoutout to my teammates. We had balanced scoring across the board and I think we came out here focused," Feagin said.
"We're hungry with our season not ending how we wanted it to in the South so for us to end it in this fashion, we're coming for it all."
Austin Rapp put up another 14 points, nine boards, four assists, three steals and two blocks with Jacob Foy adding 14 points on 4/6 three-point shooting.
Malith Machar also had 12 points and six rebounds, Kyle Bowen 12 points and seven boards, and Madut Akec nine points and seven rebounds.
Sam Short once again did all he could to try and keep Eltham in the contest finishing with 15 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds on shooting 6/11 from the floor.
Friday's star 19-year-old Zahn Agosta had another 12 points, five rebounds and two steals with Lachlan Wood contributing 11 points, two boards and two steals, captain Sam Whelan nine points and three rebounds, and Josh Sykes eight points, four boards and three assists.
KNOX RAIDERS 90 (Feagin 16, Rapp 14, Foy 14)
ELTHAM WILDCATS 66 (Short 15, Agosta 12, Wood 11)
For further information on the official destination of the National Finals, head to www.visitsunshinecoast.com
