NBL1 Central Recap: Round 3 - Saturday 23rd April

It was a huge night of NBL1 Central matchups, headlined by a nail-biting overtime win and a host of brilliant individual performances.

Check out how each game unfolded below:

South Adelaide Panthers (74) def Forestville Eagles (66)

South Adelaide opened the night by securing a hard-fought win against a resilient Forestville squad.

Despite holding the visiting team to only 8 points in the first quarter, the Panther's lead was cut to 4 points during the final term. South Adelaide doubled down on the defensive end to hold off the Eagles' side.

Olivia Levicki was enormous for the victors, registering 24pts and 15reb.

SOUTH ADELAIDE 74 (Levicki 24, Spencer 22, Johnson 18)                    FORESTVILLE 66 (Hines 15, Simons 15, Stratford 10)

Central Districts (60) def by Eastern Mavericks (84)

The Eastern Mavericks took home their first win of the season pulling off a big road win over Central Districts.

Despite an evenly contested first quarter where the Lions only trailed by one point, Eastern managed to pile on a 68pts to 43pts to close out the game.

Brigitte Lefebvre-Okankwu led the way for the Mavericks with 23pts and 10reb, as the Mavericks took home the 84-60 win.

CENTRAL DISTRICTS 60 (Samuels 19, Washington 14)                                    EASTERN MAVERICKS 84 (Lefebvre-Okankwu 23, Gouchie-Provencher 18)

Southern Tigers (85) def North Adelaide Rockets (60)

The Southern Tigers ran over the North Adelaide Rockets to improve their start to their 2022 campaign to 2-1.

The Tigers pressed their dominance in the second term, putting on a 28-14 run to extend their lead to 20 leading into half-time.

Morgan Yaegar had a big game with 27pts 7reb 7ast, while Peyton Taylor did her best to keep her Rockets side competitive, scoring 25pts and 4reb.

SOUTHERN TIGERS 85 (Yaegar 27, Skinner 20, McKendrick 18)                          NORTH ADELAIDE 60 (Taylor 25)

Sturt Sabres (77) def West Adelaide Bearcats (70)

The Sturt Sabres managed to protect their home court, handing West Adelaide their first loss of the season.

Despite the Bearcats narrowing the Sabres' lead to 3 points midway through the final quarter, the Sabres were able to hold off the rolling Bearcats on the back of Mikayla William’s 15 pts and 9reb.  

STURT SABRES 77 (Williams 15)                                                                                WEST ADELAIDE BEARCATS 70 (Langenbrinck 22, Fejo 19)

MEN

South Adelaide Panthers (92) def Forestville Eagles (80)

South Adelaide continued their unbeaten start to their 2022 campaign, winning the second of a back-to-back against Forestville.

Although Forestville took a 65-64 lead into the final term, South Adelaide stormed home outscoring the Eagles 29-16 to secure their second win of the season.

Jeremy Smith and Alexander Starling lead the panthers with 33pts and 24pts 16reb respectively. While Malith Machar starred for the Eagles with 24pts and 7reb.

SOUTH ADELAIDE 92 (Smith 33, Starling 24)                                           FORESTVILLE 80 (Machar 24, Rios 18, Mays 18)

Central Districts (109) def Eastern Mavericks (80)

Central Districts secured their first win of the season pulling off a strong 29pt win over the Eastern Mavericks.

The Lions put gave themselves a strong chance after a dominant 29-15 second quarter propelled them to a 58-38 halftime lead. Tobias Dowdell ensured victory with an emphatic 29pt 13reb performance, highlighted by two major alley-oop dunks.

 Lachlan Knibbs did his best to keep the visitors in the game, scoring 26pts and 8 rebs.

CENTRAL DISTRICTS 109 (Dowdell 29, Bol 22)                                               EASTERN MAVERICKS 80 (Knibbs 26, Kiskovic 17, Stock 17)

Southern Tigers (70) def by North Adelaide Rockets (91)

North Adelaide hit the road Saturday night, stealing a 21pt victory over the Southern Tigers.

Despite 4/5 starters scoring in double figures for the Tigers, Riley Harrap proved to be the Rockets’ X-Factor, scoring 18pts and 9reb in only 23 minutes of court time.

Machar Machar top-scored for the Southern Tigers, posting 17pts and 6reb.

SOUTHERN TIGERS 70 (Machar 17, Martin Jr 15)                                                  NORTH ADELAIDE 91 (Harrap 18, Akoh 13)

Sturt Sabres (100) def West Adelaide Bearcats (98)

The Sturt Sabres held on to take home a NAIL BITING 100-98 OT1 win over the West Adelaide Bearcats.

With 7 sec to go in the last quarter, Sturt’s Joel Spear made a free throw to force overtime, where Jacob Rigoni knocked down a tough game-winning layup to secure the 100-98 Sturt win.

Spear had an ENORMOUS game, registering 43pts and 6rebs, while Nikolas DeSantis did what he could top-scoring for the visitors with 28pts and 6rebs.

STURT SABRES 100 (Spear 43, Rigoni 20)                                                                 WEST ADELAIDE BEARCATS 98 (DeSantis 28, Sheppard 26)

Picture Credit: Picture It Sports Photography