Central Spotlight | Eagles flex muscles over Lions

Featured image: Dan Cowley | @imagesby_dan

The Forestville Eagles came into this round's NBL1 Central double desperate to hit back from last week's loss and did so emphatically with a second win with Sunday's 107-72 home triumph against the Central Districts Lions.

Forestville lost their first game of the season last week against the Sturt Sabres by two points in a thriller and hit back on Saturday night this week beating the Woodville Warriors.

They then backed up on Sunday hosting the Lions at the State Basketball Centre and that's a Central Districts team who beat the West Adelaide Bearcats the night before, and also beat Forestville in the 2025 finals.

So the Eagles had no shortage of motivation and dominated from the start with 34 points in the first quarter on Sunday on the way to lead by as much as 38 points before winning by 35 to improve to 5-1 on the season.

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It was a dominant all-round performance in the second win inside 24 hours for Forestville with them ending up shooting 54 per cent from the field and pulling down 15 offensive rebounds and having just six turnovers while scoring 22 points off the 23 from Central Districts.

Alex Starling did all his damage in the first half on his way to 18 points, 11 rebounds and five assists for the game while Greg Mays took over after half-time to end up with 18 points, nine boards and two assists.

Daniel Johnson was solid all the way through for 23 points, eight assists, four steals, three blocks and three rebounds with Adam Doyle adding 13 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals, Fiston Ipassou 12 points, four boards and three steals, and Jordan Forbes nine points, five steals and three rebounds.

Centrals weren’t able to ever really be in with a shot of backing up their Saturday night win over the West Adelaide Bearcats and finished up shooting just 35 per cent from the field with 9/32 from behind the arc and coughing up 23 turnovers.

Deng Manyang finished the afternoon with 16 points, 14 rebounds and three assists with Koen Sapwell putting up 17 points, seven boards and four assists, and Jayden Seymour 12 points, nine rebounds and three assists.

Magok Manyang had just 11 points on 3/8 shooting with Kalani Sapwell adding seven points and four assists.

Forestville hit back from their first loss of the season last week with a win on Saturday and kept that momentum going on Sunday hosting the Lions with a massive 34-17 first quarter.

The Eagles went on an 11-0 scoring run to already be leading by 19 points while scoring 11 points from the eight Central Districts turnovers in the opening frame.

Alex Starling already had 12 points in that first quarter for Forestville and then it was another 24 points to 20 in the second period which saw them heading into the half-time interval leading 58-37.

That was with Starling having 18 points, nine rebounds and three assists on 8/10 shooting while Daniel Johnson was along for the ride with 16 points on 7/10 shooting.

Centrals had no answers for Forestville with the 37 first half points on 36 per cent shooting from the field and 3/16 from deep with the 12 turnovers despite Koen Sapwell and Jayden Seymour combining for 22 points.

The lead for the Eagles got out to 27 points in the third quarter as well and they were still leading by 21 at three quarter-time before then exploding again for 31 to 17 in the final period.

Forestville shot 13/21 in that last quarter to end up winning by 35 points to make quite the statement with back-to-back wins this weekend after that loss in a thriller last week to the undefeated Sturt.

Forestville will be next in action on Anzac Day on the road to the Norwood Flames while the Lions also play on Saturday at home to the South Adelaide Panthers.

NBL1 CENTRAL 2026 SEASON | ROUND 5

FORESTVILLE EAGLES 107 (Johnson 23, Mays 18, Starling 18)

CENTRAL DISTRICTS LIONS 72 (K Sapwell 17, D Manyang 16, Seymour 12)