NBL1 North Recap | Saturday Men's Round 3

The South West Metro Pirates made it two overtime road wins inside 24 hours in Round 3 of the NBL1 North Men's competition on Saturday night while the Darwin Salties also won to the delight of their home crowd.

Todd Blanchfield and Isaiah Moss also led the Rockhampton Cyclones to a Saturday night Round 3 victory with wins also for the Sunshine Coast Phoenix and Ipswich Force.

There was just the one match back on Friday night to open Round 3 in the NBL1 North Men's competition. It was an overtime heartstopper with the South West Metro Pirates defeating the Townsville Heat 94-90 on the road.

Then on Saturday evening, the South West Metro Pirates backed that up with another stunning overtime road victory, this time beating the Cairns Marlins 93-90.

Brendan Teys came up huge again in the clutch for the Pirates with another 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists while Rudolphe Joy scored 21 points and Joel Matysek 19. Ben Ayre had 32 points and nine rebounds for the Marlins.

The Rockhampton Rockets were then able to deliver a strong performance on the road to beat the Mackay Meteors 92-77.

Todd Blanchfield was stunning on return for Rockhampton with 38 points while Isaiah Moss added 26 points. Kyrin Galloway scored 26 points for Mackay.

The Sunshine Coast Phoenix scored a strong home win on Saturday night beating the Northside Wizards 87-79. Mason Bragg finished with 23 points and seven assists for Sunshine Coast with CJ Massingale putting up 22 points for the Wizards.

The Ipswich Force outscored the North Gold Coast Seahawks 63 points to 32 across the second and third quarter on their way to a 109-86 road victory. 

Cameron Goldfinch finished with 25 points for Ipswich, Isaac White 24 and Henry Pwono 22. Tamuri Wigness top-scored for North Gold Coast with 25 points.

Darwin Basketball Stadium was then rocking with the Darwin Salties beating the Logan Thunder 97-93 in a tremendous contest. Jerron Jamerson finished with 22 points for Darwin and Makuach Maluach 20 with Tad Dufelmeier stepping up for 17 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Jeremy Kendle delivered 34 points for the Thunder.

Round 3 in the NBL1 North Men's season will now wrap up on Sunday afternoon at JBS Stadium with the Ipswich Force hosting Red City Roar. Tip-off is set for 3pm.

NBL1 NORTH – 2022 MEN'S SEASON
ROUND 3 – SATURDAY NIGHT

CAIRNS MARLINS 90 lost to SOUTH WEST METRO PIRATES 93

This Round 3 road trip north is not one the South West Metro Pirates will forget in a hurry.

On the back of a stunning overtime win in Townsville on Friday night, they back it up and repeated the dose on Saturday night in Cairns at Early Settler Stadium.

It was a tight battle the entire way with Cairns leading by a point at quarter-time before extending that advantage to 46-41 by half-time.

The Pirates closed the deficit to two by three quarter-time but still with three minutes on the clock Deba George found Sam Ellis for the finish to have Cairns leading 79-71.

Brendan Teys just wouldn’t let South West be denied though. He hit the next five points to make it a two-point game before collecting the block from Zac Carter on Ben Ayre to take it the length of the floor for the tough finish to tie scores up.

Ellis restored a two-point lead for the Marlins but eventually Taylor Young and Joel Matysek free-throws helped the Pirates force their second venture to overtime inside 24 hours in the Far North.

North West quickly took over in overtime with the first seven points through Taylor Young and Rudolphe Joly but the drama was far from done.

Aron Farmer, Ben Ayre and Deba George combined for a 7-0 Marlins streak to tie scores back and when George picked Teyes' pocket and went up to finish the fast break, Cairns were back up by a point.

However, Teys steadied to make two free-throws and he added another two to seal the 93-90 win for the second thrilling and memorable win of the weekend for his team.

Rudolphe Joly finished with 21 points and seven rebounds for the Pirates in the win with Brendan Teys contributing 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

Joel Matysek added 19 points with 3/3 from beyond the arc while Taylor Young contributed 12 points and seven rebounds, and Jakobe Hunter 10 points and two boards.

Ben Ayre delivered 32 points, nine rebounds and three assists for Cairns with James Mitchell adding 17 points and 14 boards, Deba George 16 points, six steals and three assists, and Sam Ellis 10 points.

 

MACKAY METEORS 77 lost to ROCKHAMPTON ROCKETS 92

The Rockhampton Rockets won their second game of the NBL1 North season with a strong showing on the road to the Mackay Meteors on Saturday night.

The Meteors had won their opening two matches of the season coming into hosting Rockhampton on Saturday night at Mackay Basketball Stadium, but boosted by the presence of Todd Blanchfield and Isaiah Moss, the Rockets proved too strong.

Mackay still led 26-25 by quarter-time despite the hot start of Blanchfield coming off another NBL season with the Perth Wildcats.

But in the end, the Rockets took over the longer the game went to go into half-time leading 46-41 before extending that to a nine-point lead at three quarter-time and then ending up winning the game 92-77.

With NBL pair Blanchfield and Moss in the line-up, Rockhampton proved too strong and Perth's Blanchfield was ultimately the different between the two teams.

The 347-game NBL veteran put up 38 points and 10 rebounds on the back of shooting 14/27 from the field and 5/12 from downtown.

Moss has stayed in Queensland following his NBL season at the Brisbane Bullets and he put in a strong showing for the Rockets too with 26 points, 11 rebounds and three assists while drilling 3/6 from three-point land.

Kon Anguik added 11 points and 13 rebounds for Rockhampton, Damian Prgomet 11 points and five boards, and Kai Woodfall six points, three rebounds and three assists.

Kyrin Galloway delivered 26 points, eight rebounds, five blocks and three steals for Mackay with Manny Malou contributing 13 points and five boards, Malok Majak 17 points and 15 rebounds, and Villami Foketi 12 points and four boards.

 

SUNSHINE COAST PHOENIX 87 defeated NORTHSIDE WIZARDS 79

The Sunshine Coast Phoenix made a flying start and that ended up being enough to set up an eventual win at home against the Northside Wizards on Saturday night.

Sunshine Coast started the game impressively at Maroochydore Stadium with 28 points to 15 in the opening quarter, and they were able to maintain that advantage just about the rest of the evening.

The Phoenix still led by 15 points at half-time, eight at three quarter-time and ended up winning the game 87-79 to improve to a 3-2 record three rounds into the 2022 season while the Wizards are now 1-2.

Sunshine Coast dominated the rebound count with 53 boards to 40 while also forcing Northside into 18 turnovers for the game and that helped them win despite shooting just 35 per cent from the floor.

Mason Bragg led the charge for Sunshine Coast with 23 points, seven assists and five rebounds with Jamaal Robateau adding 20 points, four boards, three assists and three steals, Darnell Robateau 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, and Jonathan Janssen eight points and nine boards.

CJ Massingale top-scored for the Wizards in just 24 minutes with 22 points while Lual Diing added 16 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and two blocked shots.

Cameron Thew added 13 points and four rebounds for Northside, and Mitch McCarron 13 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.

 

NORTH GOLD COAST SEAHAWKS 86 lost to IPSWICH FORCE 109

The Ipswich Force opened their double-header weekend down south by notching their first win of the season at the expense of the North Gold Coast Seahawks on Saturday night.

The Force had lost their opening four matches of the NBL1 North Men's season and they had to overcome a five-point deficit at quarter-time again on Saturday night against the Seahawks at Runaway Bay Stadium.

Ipswich was able to turn things around impressively in the third quarter with 32 points to 16 to see them take a 56-45 advantage into the half-time interval.

The Force continued on with that momentum with another 31 points to 16 in the third quarter and that set up the eventual 109-86 victory as they broke their duck for the season ahead of another clash on the road down south on Sunday against the Red City Roar.

Ipswich collected 49 rebounds to just 34 from North Gold Coast for the game and shot a superb 53.3 per cent from the floor along with taking 30 free throws opposed to 23.

Cameron Goldfinch finished with 25 points for the Force in the victory while Isaac White put up 24 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals in his second game on the back of his NBL season at the Illawarra Hawks.

Henry Pwono added 22 points and eight rebounds for Ipswich, and Cairns Taipans star forward Majok Deng 11 points and six assists.

Brisbane Bullets NBL guard Tamuri Wigness finished with 25 points and five rebounds for North Gold Coast with Alex Mudronja adding 19 points, six rebounds and six assists, and Jackson Ware 14 points and five boards.

 

DARWIN SALTIES 97 defeated LOGAN THUNDER 93

The Darwin Salties came back from the dead to just about blow the roof off Darwin Basketball Stadium in their win over the Logan Thunder on Saturday night.

Another loud and vocal crowd turned out to cheer on their new NBL1 North team on Saturday night and they were up and going to start the game with the Salties putting on 32 points to 19 in the first quarter.

However, the Thunder hit back impressively in the second term led by former NBL import Jeremy Kendle with 29 points of their own to 21 in the second period to cut Darwin's advantage to 52-48 by the half-time break.

The Thunder then pulled away in the third quarter with another 26 points to 16, and they were still on top 85-79 with six minutes remaining thanks to another three ball from Kendle.

Makuach Maluach responded in kind for Darwin up the other end and then he repeated the dose to tie scores up with four minutes to play.

Jerron Jamerson again tied things up shortly after for Darwin with a three ball of his own after he gave up a tech foul and free-throw to Kendle.

Ben Wright and Tad Dufelmeier then combined to put the Salties up four but Boston Mazlin responded from beyond the arc for Logan. 

Wright then hit another couple of free-throws for the home team and it was a thrilling finish, but the Thunder couldn’t find a bucket when they needed it most and the Salties iced the game at the charity stripe and it was party time in Darwin.

Makuach Maluach ended the night for Darwin with 20 points and eight rebounds with 4/9 shooting from three-point range while Jerron Jamerson added 22 points, nine boards and four assists.

Josh Spiers contributed 14 points, Jarrod Molnar 14 points and three rebounds, and Ben Wright 10 points and five rebounds. Tad Dufelmeier is fresh off an NBL season at the Adelaide 36ers and he also had 17 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

Jeremy Kendle delivered 34 points, five rebounds and four assists for Logan, Boston Mazlin 21 points, Obi Kyei 11 points and eight boards, Rasmus Bach 11 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and Max Kerle 10 points and three rebounds.