NBL1 National Finals Recap | Men's Day 2

Original Piece by NBL1

FRANKSTON BLUES 95 defeated SOUTH ADELAIDE PANTHERS 90

One of the great aspects of a tournament like the National Finals is when you get two unfamiliar teams to one another putting together a cracking contest, and that's exactly what the Frankston Blues and South Adelaide Panthers did.

Frankston were the only team at the National Finals this week who didn’t win their conference championship having handed the Centre of Excellence their biggest defeat to earn their spot.

The Blues then had the added bonus of not having to travel anywhere to compete before then coming from 18 points down on Friday to pull off the thrilling 89-86 victory against the Canberra Gunners.

Meanwhile, in Scott Ninnis' first season in charge as coach of South Adelaide, they broke a 24-year championship drought last Saturday night by winning the NBL1 Central title by beating Woodville in the Grand Final.

South Adelaide had a rough start in Melbourne, though, losing to the Rockingham Flames by 16 points on Friday night.

Frankston then got off to a blistering start on Saturday night going on a 12-0 run in the first quarter on the way to 39 points to go into quarter-time leading 39-22.

The lead for the Blues got out to as much as 21 points during the second quarter as well but then the Panthers began to work their way back into the contest with their own 10-0 run to cut the Frankston lead to 11 by half-time.

That set the stage for a terrific second half and despite Frankston still leading by 13 points early in the fourth term after a bucket to Adrio Bailey, South Adelaide kept on coming starting with a three ball from Codey Ellison.

Jeremy Smith then knocked down a three-pointer of his own for the Panthers before hitting another pull up jumper and suddenly the margin was just six points.

By the time Smith scored again with just under five minutes to play, the margin was three and then South Adelaide pulled level with a three ball from Todd Davies. However, Smith fouled out seconds later and was understandably far from happy about it, and it did turn out to be a significant factor in the end result.

However, Davies hit another from downtown to give the Panthers the lead with three minutes to play. He nailed his third bomb of the quarter with a minute to play to keep scores tied, but it would be Frankston who finished the better from there.

South Adelaide was dearly missing the presence of Smith and Lachie Barker came up huge with two massive shots including a three-pointer that proved the sealer with the Blues going on to win 95-90 and book in their place in Sunday's championship game.

Lachie Barker backed up his huge game from Friday against Canberra with another tremendous performance for Frankston as he tries to earn an NBL contract. He finished with 23 points and four assists while hitting 4/8 from three-point territory.

Daniel Trist added 17 points and seven rebounds, Igor Hadziomerovic 13 points, seven boards and four assists, Dillon Stith 12 points and three rebounds, Alister Macdonald 11 points, Adrio Bailey eight points, 11 rebounds and five steals, and Lucas Barker seven points and nine assists.

Before fouling out late, Jeremy Smith came up huge for South Adelaide with 20 points on 11/18 shooting from the field and 7/8 from the foul line while hitting his only three-point attempt.

Todd Davies hit 6/8 from beyond the arc for 22 points with Alex Starling finishing with 21 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals, and Codey Ellison 10 points, four boards, two assists and two steals.