Sun
Jul 27, 2025
South Recap | Finals Week 1 Sunday
By Chris Pike for NBL1.com.au

The opening week of the NBL1 South finals wrapped up on Sunday afternoon with the Waverley Falcons eliminating the Ringwood Hawks women.
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Image credit: Rif Ahmet | @dad.of.all.trades
Carley Ernst and Bec Cole once again put Waverley Falcons on their back combining for 55 points and 17 rebounds as the defending NBL1 South champions stayed alive with Sunday's elimination final win over Ringwood Hawks.
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ELIMINATION FINAL – Waverley Falcons (90) defeated Ringwood Hawks (82)
The defending champion Waverley Falcons had to dig deep but their big guns delivered with Bec Cole and Carley Ernst instrumental in their dominant second half showing to eliminate the Ringwood Hawks with the 90-82 win.
It was clear air on Sunday afternoon at Waverley Basketball Centre for the game of the opening week of the NBL1 South finals with the defending champion Falcons playing host to the Hawks.
Waverley are coming off winning both the NBL1 South and National Finals championship in 2024, and then narrowly missed a top four finish in 2025 to mean they can't afford a slip up from here to keep the defence of their conference title alive.
Waverley ended the regular season winning the last six matches for a 16-6 record as they played host to a Ringwood team in the elimination final who finished eighth with a 12-10 record having won four of their past five matches.
There was a great atmosphere for the standalone Sunday clash and it was Ringwood away from home who delivered a terrific start to go on a 9-0 run in the first quarter and to end up leading 27-16 by quarter-time.
The Hawks shot 11/24 from the field in that first quarter to the 8/21 from the Falcons but Waverley began to work back into the contest leading into the half-time break where the scores were all level at 43-43.
With the loser's season to be over, the tension was high coming into the start of the second half but Waverley came out a team on a mission and was Bec Cole and Carley Ernst lifting them to take over the contest.
The Falcons completed a 16-0 scoring run into the third quarter and suddenly they were leading by 18 points having outscored the Hawks 27 to nine in the period thanks to shooting 8/22 and 9/12 at the foul line to 4/13 and 1/2 from Ringwood.
That lead got out to 21 points early in the fourth quarter for Waverley and it did feel like the game was done, but nobody told Ringwood that and they kept on charging and even got back as close as seven points with 45 seconds to go.
That did send a brief scare into Waverley but then Amelia Todhunter found Cole wide open out on the wing, she settled and composed herself and thought about chucking up the three ball or winding more time off the clock.
She ended up shooting and it never looked like missing and that three ball was the sealer in the eventual eight-point victory for Waverley to keep them alive in trying to defend their NBL1 South championship.
The Falcons now advance to a semi-final match up against Keilor Thunder in a tantalising grand final rematch next Saturday at Keilor Stadium where the winner will advance to a preliminary final against the Knox Raiders while the season will be over for the loser.
Bec Cole was outstanding in the win for Waverley finishing with 32 points, seven assists, three steals and two rebounds on 14/26 shooting from the floor.
Carley Ernst came up huge as well ending up with 23 points, 15 rebounds and two assists with 4/11 three-point shooting while import Jenna Batsch contributed 14 points and three boards.
Katelyn Shumate also ended up with eight points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots, Amelia Todhunter seven points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals, and Sophia Locandro four points and 10 boards.
Ringwood's season is now over despite a strong showing against the defending champions with Camille Hobby delivering 27 points, seven rebounds and three assists on 12/19 field goal shooting.
Sarah Elsworth also finished her first season with Ringwood with another 22 points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals with Annabel Deerbon contributing 18 points, seven boards and two assists, and Nyaduoth Lok 10 points and eight rebounds.
WAVERLEY FALCONS 90 (Cole 32, Ernst 23, Batsch 14)
RINGWOOD HAWKS 82 (Hobby 27, Elsworthy 22, Deerbon 18)