Reaction NBL1 North | Women's Grand Final Game 1

Featured image: Judd Green

Not only did the Rockhampton Cyclones go down in Game 1 but lost Elizajane Loader to injury as they remain confident of pushing the Northside Wizards to a deciding Game 3 on Sunday.

The NBL1 North Grand Final series got underway on Friday night at Northside Indoor Sports Centre with the defending champion Wizards ending up prevailing 80-71 in the rematch of last year's decider.

The home team now has the chance to wrap up back-to-back championships in Game 2 on Saturday night with the Cyclones attempting to force it to a Game 3 on Sunday.

RECAP NBL1 NORTH | GRAND FINALS GAME 1

Wizards coach Dwight Hicks saw glimpses of how good his team can be which is why they were able to dig deep to get the win with MVP AJ Johnson brilliant with 27 points, 16 rebounds, four assists and four blocks.

Erin Bollmann also had 21 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, and Nadeen Payne 19 points and eight boards, but he also saw some of the worst basketball the Wizards have produced in 2024.

"The first five minutes were pretty good and looked like we wanted it to look like. Then the next five minutes looked like the beginning of the third and then the second quarter was backwards and forwards," Hicks said.

"The third quarter was then the worst basketball we've played all season and the fourth quarter looked like us again. It was Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde out there but this team has been really good at finding a way, that's the difference.

"When we don't play well, we probably don't fall as far as some of the other teams when they don't play well so we're able to find our feet again, and gather some momentum to work our way back.

"You saw some frustration and body language things, and things we haven’t seen during the season, but we felt like everyone responded really well."

What Hicks knows above everything else is that if his Wizards team is to secure the championship, Rockhampton will make them earn every bit of it.

"Rocky ain't going to give up and go home, they are going to come out swinging and they are going to get after us," he added.

"I think we've gotta be prepared for that early on and how they played in the third quarter is what it's going to look like in the first quarter tomorrow.

"Then it's going to be about who can get to the end pretty much because we were both pretty light on with our bench. Our starters had a body of work done out there tonight so our recovery is going to be critical."

Cyclones coach Drew Fenton was proud of the way his team responded to losing Elizajane Loader after seven minutes to a dislocated shoulder and has accepted that her Grand Final series was over.

However, he liked the contribution Tai Wakelin-Gray made along with Sydneysimone Wright, and he is backing his team to hit back on Saturday provided they take better care of the ball and tidy up some things.

"We won't be making too many adjustments. I think we got them where we wanted to and we just let it slip. That's on us but shot selection down the stretch and a few missed defensive rotations, but that's basketball and we'll be back tomorrow, and heading to Sunday for Game 3," Fenton said.

"We lost on the boards and I think it's the first game of the season that's happened so that's something that we will try and be better at tomorrow.

"We need to limit those turnovers too, we know if we get over 15 turnovers we'll struggle to win games and we ended up with 17. We just threw the ball away too often."

On top of losing Loader to injury, Fenton also had to juggle captain and star WNBL big Lara McSpadden getting into foul trouble.

"When you take the best Australian big out of the league and have to sit her on the bench, it's always going to be hard for us but I think Tai battled great," he added.

"She came in and gave us some great minutes, and she's an effort player and you need one of them to win a championship.

"I thought she battled her butt off and Sam (Bowman) battled really hard, but they are two great bigs Nadeen and AJ. They are hard to contain for a full four quarters, they're quality players but I thought we did a pretty good job on them."

Wizards guard Alice O'Driscoll made a strong contribution coming off the bench in almost 18 minutes for four points and two rebounds, and she just tries to help her team however she can.

"For me personally when I'm coming off the bench I'm just coming in there to do the best job I can," O'Driscoll said.

"I know that our starters are putting absolutely everything into the game and I know that I'm not there to go out and score 20 points, that's just not how I play.

"I want to go in and get a good rebound and play the best defence I can and help make sure we play really well for each other. Everyone is focused on doing their job because we know if we all do that then everyone will do well."

Cyclones captain Lara McSpadden overcome that early foul trouble to still play over 29 minutes for 12 points and five rebounds, and she won't change her mindset and is confident of getting the series to a decider on Sunday.

"The fouls don't really change my mindset, I still wanted to be aggressive and I did that to the best of my ability, but obviously you can't go hacking everywhere. It's not going to change everything, I'm still going to come out aggressive and play great D tomorrow," McSpadden said.

"We just have to stay positive and it's a three-game series. This is just one loss and we've still got two more opportunities to put it away so we have to keep our heads up. We'll learn from tonight and make adjustments, but we'll stay together and won't drop our heads. We'll be alright."