NBL1 East Recap | Men's Semi Finals

The Canberra Gunners and Maitland Mustangs were able to take advantage of being fresh and having home court advantage in their semi finals on Saturday night to set up a mouth watering NBL1 East Men's Grand Final on Sunday.

The Gunners and Mustangs finished the regular season in the NBL1 East holding the top two positions in the standings meaning they earned the week off to start the finals while the other four teams did battle over who would face them in the semi finals.

It was the Sutherland Sharks and Illawarra Hawks who won their respective elimination finals last Saturday to earn themselves a shot at the top two teams, but they weren’t able to pull off the upset wins at Hills Basketball Stadium.

Both semi-final match ups took place on Saturday night starting with the Canberra Gunners defeating the Illawarra Hawks 106-75.

Will Mayfield delivered a monster semi-final performance for Canberra finishing the night with 34 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and two steals while getting to the free-throw line 17 times.

Kiwi Gardner did all he could to inspire the Hawks with another 31 points, five rebounds and five assists.

The other semi-final took place later on Saturday night and that saw the Maitland Mustangs defeat the Sutherland Sharks 104-82.

Daniel Millburn ended up scoring 18 points for Maitland in the win, James Hunter 17, Will Cranston-Lown 17, Matthew Gray 11 and Josh Clifford 10.

Lochlan Hutchison did his best to try and lift Sutherland into the Grand Final with 25 points, six rebounds and six assists.

That sets up what should be a tremendous NBL1 East Men's Grand Final on Sunday between the Canberra Gunners and Maitland Mustangs at Hills Basketball Stadium with tip-off set for 4pm.

NBL1 EAST – 2022 MEN'S SEASON
SEMI FINALS – SATURDAY NIGHT

CANBERRA GUNNERS 106 defeated ILLAWARRA HAWKS 75

The Canberra Gunners booked in their place in the NBL1 East Grand Final for 2022 with a dominant performance to beat the Illawarra Hawks in the semi-final on Saturday night.

Canberra finished the regular season in top spot in the NBL1 East to automatically qualify for the semi finals while the Hawks had to beat the Norths Bears in an elimination final at home last Saturday to set up the meeting.

Illawarra went on to win that game a week ago 94-82 to book in the semi-final battle with the Gunners at Hills Basketball Stadium on Saturday night with a spot in the Grand Final on Sunday on the line.

It was an entertaining opening to the contest with both teams combining for 56 points in the first quarter with Canberra managing to lead 31-25 by quarter-time.

It remained a tight affair in the second quarter as well and a 10-0 run from the Hawks even saw them briefly grab the lead before the Gunners only led narrowly 51-49 at the half-time break.

While it was a tight and entertaining first half, the complexion of the game completely changed after half-time with Canberra asserting its dominance over Illawarra.

The Gunners went on a 13-0 scoring streak during the third quarter to open up a 21-point lead. That advantage grew out to 31 in the fourth term as they went on to outscore the Hawks 55 points to 26 in the second half.

That saw Canberra complete the 106-75 victory to advance to Sunday's Grand Final also to be held at Hills Basketball Stadium.

It was a huge dominance from the Gunners on the glass as they pulled down 53 rebounds to 29 from Illawarra while they shot a brilliant 54.6 per cent from the field and hit 12/26 at 46.2 per cent from deep.

Canberra also made 22/31 at the foul line compared with 5/6 from Illawarra who shot 39.5 per cent from the floor and hit 6/36 at 16.7 per cent from three-point range.

Will Mayfield was the star of the night for Canberra producing 34 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and two steals on the back of shooting 10/20 from the floor, 3/9 from downtown and 11/17 at the free-throw line.

Shaun Mills added 17 points and four assists for the Gunners, Glenn Morison 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Dhal Fieg 13 points, six rebounds and six assists.

Kiwi Gardner capped off his outstanding season for the Hawks with 31 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals while Tim Coenraad shook off an early injury scare to still play 22 minutes and deliver 17 points and three rebounds.

Harry Morris added 12 points and three rebounds for Illawarra.

MAITLAND MUSTANGS 104 defeated SUTHERLAND SHARKS 82

The Maitland Mustangs and Sutherland Sharks closed semi-final day at Hills Basketball Stadium on Saturday night by doing battle for the remaining spot in the NBL1 East Grand Final on Sunday.

The Mustangs closed the regular season in second position in the NBL1 East standings to earn a spot directly in the semi finals while the Sharks had to win their way through the hard way.

Sutherland defeated the Newcastle Falcons by 18 points last Saturday night on the road to book their place in the semi finals and set up a tantalising match up with the Mustangs.

The Mustangs got off to a fast start by scoring 10 straight points during the first quarter to end up leading 25-14 by quarter-time.

It was more of the same in the second period with Maitland going on another 8-0 scoring streak to open up a 23-point advantage to outscore the Sharks 27 points to 18 to head into the half-time break leading 52-32.

While the Sharks never gave up the fight, they could never really make any inroads throughout the second half with the Mustangs opening up a lead as big as 26 points before ending up winning 104-82.

That sees Maitland advance to Sunday's Grand Final where they will take on the Canberra Gunners to determine the NBL1 East champions for 2022.

The Mustangs finished the game by collecting 49 rebounds to 32 from the Sharks while they shot 50.0 per cent from the field opposed to 42.2 per cent.

Daniel Millburn ended up top-scoring for Maitland in the win with 18 points, two rebounds and two assists with Will Cranston-Lown contributing 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

James Hunter added 17 points and six rebounds, Matthew Gray 11 points and 10 boards, Josh Clifford 10 points and six rebounds, and Jack Edwards nine points, seven assists and four rebounds.

Lochlan Hutchison did what he could to try and lift the Sharks into a Grand Final by finishing with 25 points, six rebounds and six assists.

Geoff Gerlach added 17 points and six rebounds for Sutherland, Callum Norris 12 points, two boards and two assists, and Nicolas Feng nine points in under 10 minutes on 4/5 shooting.