Central Spotlight | Eagles take over in second half

Featured image: @creativelab.mediaco 

The Forestville Eagles had a horror first half at home in the rematch of last year's NBL1 Central preliminary final but came back from 14 points down to beat the defending champion Woodville Warriors 67-59.

Woodville beat Forestville last year on the way to winning the NBL1 Central championship and the Warriors looked on track to repeat the dose for a lot of the night at the State Basketball Centre.

The Warriors were able to limit the Eagles to 19 points in the first half and led by 14 early in the second half, but Forestville took over from there to outscore them 48-26 the rest of the way to win by eight in the finish.

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The contrast from the first half to the second for Forestville was remarkable with them having 19 points on 9/28 shooting from the field with 0/6 from deep and 1/2 at the line with 17 turnovers in the first half.

Then in the second half, the Eagles scored 48 points on 16/30 shooting from the floor, 8/16 from three-point land and 8/13 at the free-throw line with just the eight extra turnovers.

The end result was Forestville was coming from 14 points down early in the third quarter to win by nine and improve to 2-3 on the season.

Sam Simons finished with 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals with Rachael King contributing 12 points and two assists, Sydney Hunter 10 points and eight rebounds, and Sarah Boothe 10 points and nine boards.

Gabi Vidmar also had eight points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Woodville are now 2-3 in their championship defence with Lealani Falatea producing another 20 points with five rebounds on shooting 8/25 from the field and 4/16 from three-point territory.

Naomi Allotey provided 15 points and seven rebounds, Ambah Kowcun 11 points, four boards and three steals, and Brittany Hodges eight points and 11 rebounds.

It was the first meeting between the two teams since last year's preliminary final and it was a tight battle in the first quarter with Forestville leading the defending champions 14-13 by the end of one.

The Eagles shot 39 per cent from the field to the 27 from the Warriors while the Warriors got to the foul line the only four times in the quarter.

The Eagles then just couldn’t score in the second quarter and they managed just the five points on 2/10 shooting to go along with having 13 turnovers.

Woodville scored 10 points from those turnovers and put up 17 points themselves to go into the half-time interval leading 30-19.

The 19 points in the first half was hardly ideal at home from Forestville, but they came out of the locker room a different outfit and put up 26 in the third period on 9/17 shooting while knocking down 5/9 from three-point range after being 0/6 at the break.

But still at three quarter-time it was Woodville clinging to the 46-45 advantage but Forestville had picked up the momentum and had another 22 points to 13 in the final period to secure the eight-point win having been down 14 at the start of the third term.

Forestville have the chance to make it a double win weekend when hosting the Central Districts Lions on Sunday while the Warriors are back in action on Anzac Day away to the North Adelaide Rockets.

NBL1 CENTRAL 2026 SEASON | ROUND 5

FORESTVILLE EAGLES 67 (S Simons 16, King 12, Hunter 10, Boothe 10)

WOODVILLE WARRIORS 59 (Falatea 20, Allotey 15, Kowcun 11)