Rocket-Men fly to first since 2007

The North Adelaide Rockets ended a 15-year drought in the Mens as they stunned in the finals series and in the NBL1 Central Mens Champiosnhip decider with an incredible fairy-tale finish 72-87 over the Norwood Flames at the St Clair Recreation Centre.  

Sunday Dech set the Rockets going with a couple of big buckets early with a triple then putback two with the Rockets opening a 2-11 run with CJ "Turnage-nator" Turnage guard closely by Dech; Tobias Dowdell off to an incredible start with 5 points of his own. Anthony Green hit back for the Flames with a thunderous two-handed slam but Dowdell then added another two with Jack McVeigh dropping his first bomb of the night to make it 6-16 and timeout to Mike Malat and the Flames. Green flushed another one down before Jimma Dau hit back for the Rockets with a triple followed by former Rocker Ray Harding at the other end with a triple along with Turnage. Verle "The Red Tornado" Williams found Dowdell with the no-look pass and Tobias flushed it down one handed for an explosive opener 16-25 after one.

Matt Lycett the last Woollacott Medallist to win a championship for his team between these two started the sceond by ligthing up an early three then another as part of a quick 8-0 run and that sparked a quick timeout from Dean Nyberg and the Rockets. Dowdell drained another triple then back-to-back makes to clearly put in his best first half of the season before McVeigh then put two in a row in of his own. Dowdell continued a quite unbelievable first half pushing the Rockets on an 0-8 run to give the Rockets a 32-43 lead at the half. Dowdell with a season high 20 points to half time in a Captian's perfromance for the ages.

Lycett dropped a triple to open the third as both teams traded baskets. Dech then swatted Flames guard Jordan Wilson away from the hoop as both teams struggled to breakaway from where they were at the half. Green then ignited the Flames with a put back two-handed dunk then another o-board for another two. McVeigh’s shot was blocked by Green again as his momentumn led the Flames back into the game. Dech and Williams steadied the ship for the red and white as they led by eleven with one quarter to go 52-63.

Turnage started off the last quarter with the offensive putback, McVeigh floated one in before Dech picked Wilson’s pocket then found McVeigh for a trailing three as he turned to the Rocket faithful beating his chest and timeout landed with the Flames. Harding then picked up his fifth foul and grabbed an early shower for the night and Dech continued to crank up all the numbers in all categories. Lycett drained one from the corner to cut it to 62-77 then Dech peeled off his second triple for the night but that was bookended quickly by triples from Turnage and Lycett to leave it 68-80 and a ray of hope for the Flames. Another Turnage triple cut it to under double digits but McVeigh porduced the play finishing and flexing on his and1. Dowdell then finished off the Flames with a dunk and a standing ovation as he took his place on the bench. Both benches were cleared in the final 30 seconds and the North Adelaide Rockets had taken it home 72-87.

Grand Final MVP Sunday Dech was elite throughout the entire match finishing with a near triple double of 15 points, 13 assists, 9 rebounds and 6 steals however his team-mate and captain of the Rockets Tobias Dodwell setup the game in the first half to finish with 27 points and 10 rebounds. “We talked about the fact this club hasn’t had a championship for quite some time in Mens, I’m just so proud of the guys for sticking at it and believing that we could get it done. It started from our defence, and we are a defensive team. Our Captain Tobias led the way from the front and I’m so happy for him he (Dowdell) was able to produce tonight,” Dech shared.

Coach Dean Nyberg was confident his team would be able to deliver if they could make it into the final five despite being 1-6 during the season and that’s exactly what they did; deliver a third championship for the head coach. “They are all special for different reasons and we wanted to break the drought here at North I love these guys and love the club. All year we spoke about trusting the process and making sure we are getting better as a basketball team and obviously we knew we had guys coming in late and we got better as the season went along and stuck together. Tobias does our dirty work week in and out and sometimes it translates to points like tonight and other times it doesn’t; I’m just so happy for the guys,” Nyberg summed up the game. Jack McVeigh emerged in the second half with 21 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists to be one of the other lead contributors after being nuliffied early.  

Woollacott Medallist CJ Turnage led the Flames with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists and Matt Lycett with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Turnage getting a real taste for an NBL class defender in Dech and although disappointed, could not do any less than commend the Rockets for the way they went about it. “They got us out of our sets fairly easily, Sunday did a great job of pressuring me in the full-court, that’s going to help me workout how to get to the next level and our team. We got some stops and got out on transition in the second half of the third quarter, we just got back to that style too late for us but kudos to them for the way they played,” Turnage praised his opposition.

Coach Mike Malat also despite the loss was nothing but full of praise for the opposition of the Rockets and rued not being able to get rolling at different times in the game. “They were very physical and played good defence, controlled the pace and got us scrambling and on our heels a bit. We tried to get out of the balls screens and move the ball more, get more paint touches some outside threes more, it did work in getting us back in but we had to shoot a high clip and in the end we couldn’t sustain that enough.”

The Rockets championship is their first since 2007 and their sixth in their Men's history and their fairy-tale finish from 1-6 to fourth, surviving elimination in overtime will remain one of the more remarkable seasons in SA basketball history.    

Norwood Flames 72 (Turnage 20, Lycett 18, Green 11) defeated by North Adelaide Rockets 87 (Dowdell 27, McVeigh 21, Dech 15, Dau 14)