NBL1 North Recap | Round 14 Sunday

Two games up North took place today as the USC Rip City hosted Townsville and the Ipswich Force hosted the SW Metro Pirates. 

Check out how the games went below: 

Women: 

USC Rip City (59) def by Townsville Flames (93)

USC and the Flames were both without their Opals star’s as Rip City’s Maddison Rocci and Townsville’s Alanna Smith are both in New York with the Opals. 

However, Townsville has another Opal of their own in Steph Reid, and she was an absolute star for the Flames scoring 25 points with nine assists and five steals in the massive win. Superstar teammate Courtney Woods also added 27 points shooting 7/12 from the three-point line. 

Rocci is the engine that makes the Rip City’s offence run, and in her absence, it is difficult to replace such a talented point guard. Carlie Smith followed in Rocci’s footsteps with 18 points, eight rebounds and three assists but she couldn’t solve USC’s shooting percentages – shooting 31 percent from both inside and outside the arc. 

Ipswich Force (93) def SW Metro (62) 

Ipswich have defended home court in a huge win on a Sunday afternoon, eating the SW Metro Pirates by 31 points. 

Underrated star of the NBL1 North Amanda Cahill had an amazing game, scoring 28 points in the win. Brianna Rollerson had a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds as the Force continue to be a chance to make the final eight for the NBL1 North conference finals. 

The Pirates’ Bride Kennedy-Hopoateput up 18 points and eight rebounds in the loss. 

Men: 

USC Rip City (92) def Townsville (71)

Returning from the FIBA Asia Cup with a gold medal was USC’s Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, the NBL champion and defensive star was back in action alongside NBL1 North MVP candidate Kouat Noi who had 32 points and 13 rebounds in the win over Townsville. 

The Townsville Heat put up a good fight, with Matthew Rees scoring 22 points while Richard Peachey had his own 16 points.

Rip City move to third on the ladder, almost matching the Gold Coast Rollers and surpassing the Ipswich Force and Darwin Salties. With the Boomers contingent returning the NBL1 North is about to get very interesting in this last round. 

Ipswich Force (108) def SW Metro (65)

Ipswich were out in force as they took down the Pirates handily, their star was Cameron Goldfinch who had 30 points in the win. That was followed up by Majok Deng and his 15 points, 13 rebounds and five assists. The Force only had 16 total points from the bench,  the starting line-up carried the entire game from start to finish. 

For SW Metro, Brendan Teys had 19 points as the Pirates significantly struggled from outside, shooting 7/24 (29 percent) from the arc. 

Ipswich remains an underrated threat to upset in the coming NBL1 North finals, as their depth is as good as anyone's looking across the top four seeds. 

Feature image via: Zain Mohammed