NBL1 West Recap | Women's Friday Finals Week 1

The Joondalup Wolves might have just missed the regular season crown but they are straight through to the preliminary final in the NBL1 West Women's competition after beating the Mandurah Magic on Friday night.

The NBL1 West finals for 2022 got underway on Friday night at HBF Arena Joondalup with the second ranked Wolves who did win their opening 16 matches of the season playing host to an on-fire Magic team entering the playoffs on an eight-game winning run.

While the Wolfpack welcomed back Perth Lynx WNBL guard Robbi Ryan from injury, it was gun big Teige Morrell who proved the major difference between the two teams particularly with Mandurah front court pairing Carly Boag and Alex Wittinger battling foul trouble.

As a result, the Wolves proved too strong and ended up prevailing 81-70 to advance to a preliminary final next Saturday night back at HBF Arena while the Magic will play host to either the Lakeside Lightning or Rockingham Flames in a semi-final on Friday.

Morrell delivered a huge performance for Joondalup with 35 points and 12 rebounds with Nes'eya Parker-Williams adding 20 points and 16 rebounds in her 100th game in the league.

Sarah Toeaina delivered 16 points and 10 rebounds for Mandurah, and Wittinger 16 points and seven boards.

The other NBL1 West Women's qualifying final will now take place on Saturday evening at Warwick Stadium between the regular season champion Warwick Senators and the defending champion Willetton Tigers.

Both elimination finals also take place on Saturday night with the Cockburn Cougars at home to the Perry Lakes Hawks while the Lakeside Lightning play the Rockingham Flames.

Meanwhile in the NBL1 West Men's competition, the elimination finals will be played out between the Warwick Senators and Perry Lakes Hawks, and Goldfields Giants and Mandurah Magic.

The qualifying finals will see the Geraldton Buccaneers at home to the Cockburn Cougars, and the Rockingham Flames battle the Joondalup Wolves.

NBL1 WEST – 2022 WOMEN'S SEASON
WEEK 1 FINALS – FRIDAY NIGHT

QUALIFYING FINAL
JOONDALUP WOLVES 81 defeated MANDURAH MAGIC 70

The Joondalup Wolves and Mandurah Magic deserve to feel they are genuine championship threats in the NBL1 West Women's competition and nothing happened on Friday night at HBF Arena to change that.

The Wolfpack played host to the Magic on Friday to open the NBL1 West finals having finished the regular season in second position with an 18-2 record on the back of having won their opening 16 matches of the 2022 season.

The Magic, meanwhile, arrived at Joondalup on Friday night on an eight-game winning streak having finished the regular season in third position with a 16-4 record including handing the Wolves their biggest loss of the season to the tune of 23 points just two weeks ago.

The two teams played out a cracking battle earlier in the season at HBF Arena as well on May 28 which saw the Wolfpack come from nowhere to snatch the 80-77 win against the Magic.

So the stage was set for a tantalising match up with the rights to host a preliminary final on the line when they locked horns again on Friday night at HBF Arena.

Joondalup was able to open up a five-point advantage during the first quarter and the home team was still on top 23-21 by quarter-time.

However, Mandurah turned the tide in the second term going on a 6-0 run to grab their own five-point lead at one stage and in the end by half-time the Wolves narrowly extended their advantage to lead 42-38.

Teige Morrell was proving the difference in the game with the Magic struggling to contain her after her best match up Carly Boag picked up a third foul early in the second quarter.

Mandurah needed both Boag and Alex Wittinger out on the court for the majority of the second half to be a chance against Morrell and Nes'eya Parker-Williams in the Joondalup frontcourt, but it wasn’t to be.

It only took two minutes into the third quarter for Boag to collect her fourth foul and with Wittinger soon in foul trouble as well, and as a result Morrell continued to dominate and proved to be the difference in the qualifying final match up.

The Magic did make a couple of runs in the fourth quarter and did make it a one possession game, but couldn’t quite get over that hump with Joondalup winning 81-70 to move straight into a home preliminary final.

The Wolves focused their attention on the inside for much of the night and shot 41.7 per cent from the floor and went 7/20 from three-point range with the Magic going at 32.6 per cent from the field but struggling from downtown at 6/32.

Teige Morrell had a remarkably dominant finals performance for the Wolves finishing with 35 points and 12 rebounds on 14/25 shooting from the floor and 7/10 at the foul line.

Nes'eya Parker-Williams was playing the 100th game of her career that began at the Perth Redbacks and that has already seen her earn a taste of the WNBL, and she was terrific with 20 points, 10 boards and two assists.

Tia Ucich added 10 points and four rebounds for Joondalup, Hannah Duncan five points and three rebounds, and the returning Robbi Ryan four points, six rebounds and two assists.

Sarah Toeaina played all but two and-a-half minutes of the game for Mandurah and finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds with Alex Wittinger adding 16 points and seven boards before fouling out in less than 26 minutes.

Carly Boag playing less than 20 minutes proved fatal for the Magic and she had eight points and five rebounds with the league's games record holder Casey Mihovilovich delivering another 13 points and six boards.

Hannah Little had a rough shooting night going 0/12 from the field but battled hard for 15 rebounds and five assists.