NBL1 North Men's Semi-finals recap

The Coles Express NBL1 North men’s grand final will feature two North Queensland sides with Mackay and Cairns the victors on Saturday night.

Mackay Meteors 106 def USC Rip City 91

Mackay Meteors clawed back to claim a 106-91 victory over USC Rip City in the first semi-final at Mackay Basketball Stadium on Saturday night.

Rip City led at each break, but the Meteors managed to stay in striking distance and found themselves level at 76-76 with 7.27 left in the final quarter.

Kye Medhurst banked in a three-pointer to kickstart a crucial run for the Meteors. Chris Cedar hit the next three three-pointers, including one from the logo, to make it 12 unanswered points at the 5.13 mark.

Meteors centre Emmanuel Malou scored a game-high 34 points and 10 rebounds. Cedar added 27 points and Jerron Jamerson kicked in with 22 points. The trio combined for 78.3% of Mackay’s offence.

The Meteors outscored Rip City at the free throw line 30-8. The foul trouble also saw USC bigs Eric McAlister, Josh Tueta and Louis Ilton take an early seat.

Rip City forward Tanner Krebs scored a team-high 32 points and was followed closely by USC captain Isaih Tueta with 30 points.

McAlister (12 points) and Josh Tueta (11 points) also tallied double figures for the visitors.

Logan Thunder 67 def by Cairns Marlins 96

Cairns Marlins upset Logan Thunder 96-67 in the second semi-final at Bendigo Bank Cornubia Park Sports Centre on Saturday night.

The Marlins outscored the top seeds 30-15 in the second quarter to take a 51-35 lead at the main break.

The visitors then marched into the grand final with a 29-15 final quarter to extend the winning margin to 29 points.

Alex Loughton scored a game-high 25 points including 3 of 3 three-pointers and was followed closely by teammate Deba George with 24 points.

The Marlins also got strong contributions from Curt Ahwang (18 points including 6 of 9 from deep), Anthony Fisher (14 points), and James Mitchell (11 points, 15 rebounds).

Mitch Young scored a team-high 21 points for the Thunder with an efficient 10 of 14 fields goals made but his teammates were not as accurate with just 36% field goals made overall in the loss.

Logan’s Jeremy Kendle (18 points) and Shaun Bruce (15 points) were the Thunder’s next best offense options.

The Marlins will travel to Mackay for the finals series with an 0-2 record against the Meteors this season. The Meteors won 75-77 in Round 1 and 98-79 in Round 12.

The best-of-three grand final playoff series will be played on Mackay’s home court on three consecutive nights with game 1 on Friday, September 10 at 8pm.