The Townsville Flames are the NBL1 North Women's champions on the back of two dominant and outstanding Grand Final wins on the road in successive nights against the previously undefeated Logan Thunder.
Logan came into the Grand Final Series having won all 19 of their regular season matches and then both their finals matches against the Cairns Dolphins and Brisbane Capitals.
However, they found the going much tougher in the Grand Final Series at Bendigo Bank Cornubia Park Sports Centre against the Townsville Flames.
The Flames finished the regular season in third place and then defeated the Mackay Meteorettes and Southern Districts Spartans in the first two weeks of the finals to reach the Grand Final.
The Shannon Seebohm-coached Flames then put on a clinic in all areas in both Grand Final games winning Game 1 on Friday night 85-57 to hand Logan their first loss of the season.
The Flames then backed that up with an even more emphatic performance on Saturday night holding the Thunder to just four points in the first quarter on the way to the eventual 80-48 victory.
That saw Townsville secure the NBL1 North championship for 2022 and book in their spot at the National Finals in Melbourne.
Steph Reid was named the Grand Final MVP after delivering 28 points and eight assists on Saturday night backing up her 21 points and 11 assists from the night before.
NBL1 NORTH – 2022 WOMEN'S SEASON
GRAND FINAL GAME 2 – SATURDAY NIGHT
LOGAN THUNDER 48 lost to TOWNSVILLE FLAMES 80
The Townsville Flames rocked the Logan Thunder in Game 1 of their Grand Final Series but the beauty of a best-of-three game championship series was that they had a chance to respond on Saturday night.
After going through the regular season undefeated and then winning their opening two finals matches against the Cairns Dolphins and Brisbane Capitals, the Thunder had won all 21 of their matches coming into the Grand Final Series.
However, Townsville proved too strong in Friday night's Grand Final Game 1 scoring the emphatic 85-57 victory at Bendigo Bank Cornubia Park Sports Centre to hand Logan their first defeat of 2022.
That only served to set up an even more fascinating weekend to determine the NBL1 North champions for 2022 with Logan needing to show it could bounce back from a loss and make the necessary adjustments while Townsville had the chance to show it could back up what they did on Friday.
It was back to the same venue for Game 2 on Saturday night and what soon became obvious was that Townsville was once again locked in defensively and that Logan was going to find it mighty difficult to score against them once again.
With Shannon Seebohm putting on a coaching masterclass and his players executing it to a tee, Logan once again just had no answers for what Townsville were putting up against them.
The Thunder were only able to score four points for the entire first quarter and while the Flames only scored 14 points themselves to not totally blow them away, the tone was set once again for the evening.
Townsville's offence then caught up to its defence in the second quarter with the Flames scoring 11 straight points at one point on the way to putting up 34 points to just 10 from Logan to head into half-time 48-14.
The championship was pretty much wrapped up with that dominant first half showing from Townsville with the Flames then confirming their dominance of the Grand Final Series.
The Flames put up another 25 points to 14 in the third quarter to lead by as much as 47 points, and both teams were just playing out for time in the fourth term with Townsville going on to claim the 80-48 victory.
It was a remarkable two-game Grand Final performance both from a coaching and playing point of view from Townsville to earn a championship they deserve to savour against a team that had been undefeated still in 2022 just two days ago.
The shooting of the two teams saw Townsville going at 49.1 per cent from the field, 9/22 at 40.9 per cent from three-point land and they got to the foul line 21 times. Logan managed to shoot just at 28.4 per cent while hitting 3/24 at 12.5 per cent from deep and taking just 11 free-throws.
Steph Reid was once again outstanding for the Flames as she secured the Grand Final MVP award in the NBL1 North. She put up another 28 points, eight rebounds and two rebounds on 9/14 shooting from the floor and 10/10 at the charity stripe in Game 2.
Alanna Smith had a terrific battle with Mikaela Ruef once again and finished with 17 points, six rebounds, three blocks and two steals while Mia Murray delivered 13 points, six rebounds and three steals with knocking down 4/5 from the land of plenty.
Courtney Woods also had 12 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals while Jaimee Seebohm was a standout defensively while contributing two points, five rebounds and two steals.
Indiah Bowyer finished with 11 points, two steals and two blocked shots for Logan with Lisa Barnett-Keresoma also scoring 11 points to go with four rebounds on 5/8 shooting.
Sigi Koizar added seven points and three rebounds for the Thunder, Mikaela Ruef six points, 16 rebounds and four assists, and Chevannah Paalvast six points, five rebounds and two steals.