NBL1 North Recap | Saturday Semi Finals

The Grand Finals are set in the NBL1 North with the Northside Wizards and Rockhampton Cyclones winning through to the women's decider while Nathan Sobey, Deng Deng and the Ipswich Force set up a match up with Jason Cadee, Todd Blanchfield and the Gold Coast Rollers.

The two women's semi finals took place on Saturday night with the Northside Wizards beating the South West Metro Pirates 89-73 and the Rockhampton Cyclones defeating the Logan Thunder 66-59.

The men's semi finals began on Friday with the Gold Coast Rollers beating the South West Metro Pirates 108-95 before the Ipswich Force beat the Logan Thunder 87-79 on Saturday.

NBL1 NORTH RECAP | FRIDAY SEMI FINALS

WOMEN

Wizards earn hosting rights for Grand Final Series

The Northside Wizards have been the standout team this NBL1 North season and they will now play host to the Grand Final Series after beating the South West Metro Pirates 89-73 on Saturday night.

The Wizards won their first 12 games of the NBL1 North season on the way to securing top spot with a 16-3 record before beating the Townsville Flames in last week's quarter-final.

The Pirates, though, did pose a significant test having finished fourth at 13-6 before overcoming the Southern Districts Spartans in the quarter finals to set up the battle with the Wizards at Northside Indoor Sports Centre.

It didn’t take the Wizards long to take control of the semi-final, though, and with a 10-0 run, they took an 11-point lead into quarter-time on top 31-20.

Northside extended that lead out to 15 points in the second quarter before leading 48-40 by the half-time interval.

Nasty block from Amanda Johnson ?

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The Wizards kept on building that lead throughout the second half with the advantage out to 17 points in the third stanza and 22 in the fourth before winning by 16 points.

The win sees the Wizards move into the Grand Final Series where they will host the Rockhampton Cyclones while the season is over for the Pirates.

AJ Johnson was the star of the evening in the win for Northside as she delivered 23 points, 12 rebounds, two steals and two blocks on the back of shooting 10/16 from the field and 2/2 from the three-point line.

Courtney Woods delivered another 16 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and two blocks with Lil Dart adding 13 points, five boards and five assists, Georgia Dale 13 points, three rebounds and two assists, and Nadeen Payne 12 points, six boards and six assists.

Maddy Rocci delivered 29 points, seven assists, six rebounds and six steals to finish the season strongly for South West Metro while Hannah Young added 16 points and eight boards, and Leah Scott 15 points, 15 rebounds and five assists. 

Maddy Rocci is on fire ?

1??7?? points and 6?? assists going into halftime ?

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Cyclones deliver Thunder another heartbreaking loss

Logan Thunder's impressive winning streak has been brought to a heartbreaking end one round earlier than a year ago with the Rockhampton Cyclones beating them 66-59 to advance to next week's Grand Final Series.

Logan was the dominant team in the NBL1 North a season ago going through the regular season undefeated before then losing to the Townsville Flames in heartbreaking fashion in the Grand Final.

It was a bit more of a slow start to 2023 losing four of the opening eight games, but once Mikaela Ruef returned they became unstoppable and ended the regular season winning 11 straight before beating the Gold Coast Rollers last week in the quarter finals.

That saw the Thunder bring a 12-game winning streak into Saturday's semi-final at Bendigo Bank Cornubia Park Sports Centre up against a Cyclones team who did arrive on a mission and on their own six-game winning streak including the quarter-final win over the Darwin Salties.

It turned out to be quite the fascinating contest with the Grand Final spot on the line with Rockhampton getting the better of the start to lead 20-13 already by quarter-time.

The Cyclones remained on top leading by as much as 10 in the second quarter and seven in the third before by three quarter-time, it was only a 48-47 advantage.

Back-to-back three-point bombs for Logan put the home team in front by five points with just over five minutes to play and they had all the momentum, but the Cyclones were anything but ready to lie down.

Rockhampton responded with a three-pointer in response before Sam Bowman added another to return the Cyclones to the lead, and they went on with the job from there.

From the moment Logan nailed those two quick threes to make it 57-52, it was a remarkable final five minutes for Rockhampton as they outscored the Thunder 14 points to two the rest of the way to claim the seven-point win.

Rockhampton now advances to the Grand Final Series against the Northside Wizards next week while it's another heartbreaking end to a season for Logan.

MEN

Deng/Sobey set up Ipswich for Grand Final battle with Gold Coast

A mouth watering NBL1 North Grand Final Series is set after Deng Deng and Nathan Sobey led the Ipswich Force to the 87-79 away semi-final victory against the Logan Thunder on Saturday night.

With Jason Cadee and Todd Blanchfield having already led the Gold Coast Rollers into next weekend's Grand Final Series, it was Logan and Ipswich playing off for the right to face them on Saturday at Bendigo Bank Cornubia Park Sports Centre.

Logan finished the regular season in second spot at 15-4 before beating the Darwin Salties in last week's quarter-final while Ipswich ended up third at 13-6 before defeating the Cairns Marlins in a quarter-final.

That set up a tantalising semi-final match up with the winner to advance to the Grand Final Series and it was a stunning start to the contest from the Thunder.

They opened up a 24-5 lead by the time Rasmus Bach and Shaun Bruce knocked down three-pointers inside the opening seven minutes before still being on top 31-18 by quarter-time.

Logan pushed that lead back out to 18 points again in the second term and they were still leading 50-35 by half-time, but then in the third quarter Ipswich started to turn the tide.

The Force ended up outscoring the Thunder 33 points to 14 in the third period to end up grabbing the lead, and then keeping the momentum going in the fourth stanza.

Ipswich would end up leading by 13 points in the fourth quarter having earlier trailed by as much as 19 on the way to the eventual eight-point win to advance to the Grand Final against Gold Coast.

Deng Deng delivered a huge performance in the win for Ipswich with 28 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals on shooting 9/21 from the floor, 3/8 from downtown and 7/9 at the foul line.

Nathan Sobey also produced 24 points, eight rebounds and three steals with 5/11 shooting from beyond the arc while Jaylin Galloway added 12 points, five boards and three assists, and Jason Ralph 11 points, four assists, three rebounds and three steals.

Shaun Bruce ended up with 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for Logan with Rasmus Bach contributing 19 points and eight boards, Boston Mazlin 15 points and two rebounds, Majok Deng 11 points, seven boards and three assists, and Mitch Young eight points, 13 rebounds and two assists.

Majok Deng finishes the alley-oop ?

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