The 2022 championship winners from the NBL1 West, North and South conferences brought that form and momentum onto the opining night of the National Finals in Melbourne on Friday night with impressive victories.
The first ever NBL1 National Finals is up and running at the State Basketball Centre in Melbourne with the championship winners from the NBL1 South, East, North, West and Central all locking horns along with the Wildcard winner which happened to be the Southern Districts.
The six teams all got their National Finals campaign underway on Friday night and it ended up with wins for NBL1 West champions the Warwick Senators, North champions the Townsville Flames and South winners the Ringwood Hawks.
The three opening day match ups all took place across the courts at the State Basketball Centre in Knox and the Warwick Senators brought the momentum of winning 18 straight matches to win the NBL1 West to beat the NBL1 Central's West Adelaide Bearcats 86-61.
The Senators have arrived in Melbourne with virtually a full strength line-up a week after winning their NBL1 West championship and they were mighty impressive first up with 25 points from MVP Stacey Barr and 20 points, 14 rebounds and six steals from Grand Final MVP Leonie Fiebich.
Jasmin Fejo top-scored for the Bearcats with 17 points and five assists.
It was an all NBL1 North match up on Court 2 with a rematch from the semi finals between the Townsville Flames and Southern Districts Spartans. Townsville backed up their championship win by prevailing 80-67.
Steph Reid was outstanding was once again for the Flames with 32 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and six steals. Leah Scott delivered 32 points and 10 rebounds for the Spartans.
The Ringwood Hawks then backed up their stunning NBL1 South Grand Final win against the Bendigo Braves with a win first up at the National Finals beating the Albury-Wodonga Bandits 97-56.
Marena Whittle was Grand Final MVP and kept that form going with 25 points and 19 rebounds while the NBL1 East Grand Final MVP Unique Thompson had 24 points and 16 boards for the Bandits.
NBL1 – 2022 NATIONAL FINALS
DAY 1 – FRIDAY NIGHT
WARWICK SENATORS 86 defeated WEST ADELAIDE BEARCATS 61
NBL1 West champions the Warwick Senators arrived at the National Finals with virtually a full roster and they flexed their muscles on Friday night to beat the West Adelaide Bearcats.
Just last Friday night the Senators confirmed themselves as the standout team in the NBL1 West by finishing the season with 18 consecutive victories by winning the Grand Final with a big win over the reigning champion Willetton Tigers.
Warwick then arrived in Melbourne for the National Finals with all their guns available including MVP Stacey Barr, Grand Final MVP Leonie Fiebich, former Opal Nat Burton, Perth Lynx forward Mackenzie Clinch Hoycard and 439-game veteran Nicole Jorre de St Jorre.
However, the Bearcats were also fresh off winning the NBL1 Central championship beating the Sturt Sabres in last Saturday night's Grand Final.
West Adelaide still had Jasmin Fejo, Jennie Rintala, Madelyn Utti and Sky Langenbrinck from that winning team but were without Jasmine Simmons, and they found the going tough up against the Senators.
Arriving in Melbourne having won 18 straight matches in the NBL1 West, the Senators didn’t take long to continue that form with Stacey Barr lighting it up with 15 points in the first half alone as she revelled in being back home and playing in front of family and friends once more.
The Senators opened up an 11-point lead in the first quarter on the Bearcats before stretching that out to 26 during the second period before going into the half-time break leading 49-26.
It was more of the same in the third quarter with another 20 points to 12 from Warwick to see the lead grow to 32. It got out to 35 in the fourth term but West Adelaide ended up winning the quarter with 23 points to 17 before the Senators won 86-61.
With quarter wins counting towards the points accumulated over the weekend to determine final standings and match ups on Sunday, the Senators got the points for the win and winning the first three quarters, but the Bearcats did nab that point for the fourth quarter.
Two-time NBL1 West MVP Stacey Barr was outstanding in her homecoming with 25 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals while Grand Final MVP Leonie Fiebich delivered 20 points, 14 rebounds, six steals and four assists on 9/14 shooting.
Young gun Chloe Forster also added 13 points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals with Nat Burton contributing 10 points and six boards, Mackenzie Clinch Hoycard nine points, 10 rebounds and six assists, and Nicole Jorre de St Jorre seven points, six assists and five boards.
West Adelaide will at least take heart from the way it finished the game with Jasmin Fejo finishing with 17 points, five assists and four rebounds.
Another of their guns with WNBL experience, Jennie Rintala, also had 13 points and seven rebounds with Madelynn Utti contributing 11 points and 14 boards, and Abby Brenton seven points and six rebounds.
SOUTHERN DISTRICTS SPARTANS 67 lost to TOWNSVILLE FLAMES 80
The National Finals on Friday night opened up with a semi-final NBL1 North rematch and it was once again the Townsville Flames proving too strong for the Southern Districts Spartans.
While the Spartans finished the regular season in the NBL1 North in second position with a 17-2 ahead of the Flames who were third at 16-3, it was Townsville who proved unstoppable right throughout the finals.
After Townsville beat Southern Districts in the semi finals, the Flames put on a masterclass in the opening two games of the Grand Final Series against a Logan Thunder team who had been undefeated in 2022 up until that point.
However, the Flames outscored them 165-105 in two games on the way to claiming the championship in remarkable fashion on the back of a masterful coaching performance from Shannon Seebohm with his players carrying it out to a tee.
Townsville arrived at the National Finals this weekend without superstar Alanna Smith, though, while the Spartans were virtually at full strength setting up a fascinating All NBL1 North match up first up in Melbourne on Friday night.
On the back of their finals momentum after claiming the championship two weeks ago, Townsville started the clash strongly in Melbourne and were lead 23-15 by the end of the first quarter.
However, Southern Districts were able to work back in the contest during the second period including going on a 7-0 run and it was a tight contest by half-time with the Flames leading 41-39.
While the Flames pushed back out to an eight-point lead during the third quarter, Southern Districts stayed in touch and by three quarter-time Townsville was only leading by three.
However, the Flames were too strong down the stretch scoring 12 straight points in the fourth term to lead by as much as 17 and to end up winning 80-67 to keep their imposing form going even minus Alanna Smith.
Steph Reid continued her remarkable run of form for Townsville with another 32 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and six steals while shooting 14/28 from the field.
Courtney Woods added 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Flames, and Mia Murray 13 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Leah Scott battled hard all evening for the Spartans finishing with 32 points and 10 rebounds on 14/21 shooting.
Nadeen Payne also finished with 16 points and seven rebounds, Madelyn Allen 10 points and seven boards, and Kalani Purcell four points, eight rebounds, three steals and two assists.
RINGWOOD HAWKS 97 defeated ALBURY-WODONGA BANDITS 56
The Ringwood Hawks continued their momentum from winning the NBL1 South championship to start the National Finals with a big win over the Albury-Wodonga Bandits.
The Hawks were the only team in the women's section of the National Finals to not need to jump on a plane to take part at the State Basketball Centre in Melbourne, and they showed they are going to be tough to beat this weekend.
Ringwood were fresh off winning the NBL1 South championship by beating the Bendigo Braves in last Saturday night's Grand Final. The Hawks retained that entire squad too ensuring they were going to be a strong force in the National Finals.
Albury-Wodonga capped off an outstanding NBL1 East season by winning the Grand Final two weeks ago but they arrived in Melbourne without legendary superstar Lauren Jackson as she is with the Australian Opals ahead of the FIBA World Cup later this month in Sydney.
Despite that, with NBL1 East Grand Final MVP Unique Thompson on fire, the Bandits kept pace with the Hawks early but Ringwood worked their way on top with a 10-0 run to lead by 11 during the first quarter
The Hawks were still up 23-18 by quarter-time and then pushed that out to a 19-point lead during the second quarter to be on top 49-32 by the half-time break.
It was more of the same throughout the second half with Ringwood outscoring Albury-Wodonga 20 points to 13 in the third quarter, and then in the fourth things really blew out.
The Hawks scored 12 consecutive points to lead by as much as 41 points by the final buzzer with the 97-56 victory.
On the back of her Grand Final MVP performance for Ringwood, Marena Whittle continues to tune up for another WNBL season at the Adelaide Lightning in hot form by producing 25 points, 19 rebounds, four assists and four steals on 10/15 shooting.
Jacqueline Trotto added 20 points and five rebounds for the Hawks, Toni Farnworth 17 points and eight assists, Marta Hermida 15 points and seven assists, and Digna Strautmane 13 points, seven rebounds, five steals, four assists and three blocks.
Unique Thompson fought valiantly for Albury-Wodonga with another 24 points, 16 rebounds and three steals with Brodie-Paige Theodore adding 10 points, six boards and four assists, and Ai Yamada eight points, six assists and four rebounds.
