Central Spotlight | Champs overcome Rockets in OT

Nik DeSantis hit a huge three to open overtime to mark his NBL1 Central return and Braelen Bridges starred on his NBL1 comeback but still it took the extra five minutes for the West Adelaide Bearcats to overcome the North Adelaide Rockets 104-95.

The Bearcats did end up opening their NBL1 Central championship defence as winners but not without receiving an almighty scare from the Rockets on Saturday night at The Lights Community and Sports Centre.

Even with West Adelaide holding a 10-point lead inside the final five minutes of regulation, North Adelaide showed tremendous heart to storm back and force the game to overtime with Joel Dyer and Oskar Jones hitting huge shots on their way to combining for 52 points.

But in the end, the class and experience of the Bearcats came through in overtime even with the Rockets taking great heart from their gutsy showing.

Having played in the NBL1 South previously with the Ringwood Hawks in 2024, Braelen Bridges marked his second stint down under impressively for West Adelaide with 26 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks on 10/14 shooting including seven of his boards at the offensive end.

Nik DeSantis also marked his return to West Adelaide having spent the past two seasons in the NBL1 West at the Geraldton Buccaneers where he won another championship in 2025. He finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and four assists and two crucial three-pointers.

Tom Kubank has also joined the Bearcats in 2026 and had 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists with Sean Stock providing 14 points, nine boards and two assists.

Riley Real also had 12 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals, and the Bearcats were a monstrous +22 in his 23 minutes on court.

Coming off their four-win season in 2025, there was a lot to be encouraged by in the performance from North Adelaide with Joel Dyer showing the way with 29 points and six rebounds including 6/13 three-point shooting.

Oskar Jones also produced 23 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals while Adelaide 36ers development player Machar Machar had 18 points and eight rebounds on 8/12 shooting at the same time his NBL team was being massacred in Game 1 of their Championship Series in Sydney.

Even with West Adelaide having had a significant turnover in their roster following last season's championship triumph, there was still a feeling of North Adelaide being up against it at home in the first game of 2026.

Nobody told the Rockets that, though, and they threw the gauntlet right down to the Bearcats from the outset and by quarter-time the scores were locked at 25-25 with West Adelaide doing most of their work inside with 20 of their 25 points inside the paint, and without landing a long ball.

No more than three points separated the two teams for the rest of the first half and even with the Bearcats still unable to hit from beyond the arc, they took the narrowest of leads at 44-43 into the half-time interval.

The scoring picked up in the third quarter including West Adelaide hitting their first three-pointer of the game courtesy of Nik DeSantis two and-a-half minutes into the half on his return to the Bearcats.

Despite that, North Adelaide answered with the next two buckets to Machar Machar and Oskar Jones to retake the lead even though the Bearcats managed to push back out to a five-point edge by three quarter-time.

Sean Stock then hit a three-point dagger early in the fourth to put West Adelaide up by eight but North Adelaide weren’t going away even after being 10 points down with just under five minutes on the clock.

The reigning champs remained in control until with just two minutes to go Joel Dyer hit a three ball for North Adelaide to make it a four-point game.

The Rockets then got a stop up one end and scored through Machar up the other to make it a one possession game before they got some help with a pair of missed free throws from Braelen Bridges.

West Adelaide did pull down a couple of offensive rebounds but couldn’t convert to leave the door open for North Adelaide and in the final minute, Jones scores to level scores up at 88-88.

Tom Kubank and Jones then traded buckets before Isaac Atuer missed his attempted winner for the Bearcats on the last play for the game to go to overtime.

That's where DeSantis hit an early three to give West Adelaide the early momentum and they couldn’t be stopped from there with 14 points to five to open their title defence with the hard earned win.

Other opening night men's results saw the Woodville Warriors beat the Norwood Flames 98-60, the Forestville Eagles defeat the Eastern Mavericks 94-87, the Sturt Sabres down the South Adelaide Panthers 96-93, and the Central Districts Lions thrash the Southern Tigers 116-82.

NBL CENTRAL 2026 SEASON | ROUND 1

NORTH ADELAIDE ROCKETS 95 (Dyer 29, Jones 23, Machar 18)

WEST ADELAIDE BEARCATS 104 (Bridges 26, DeSantis 18, Kubank 16)