Central Spotlight | Koen hits 43 as Centrals gear up for finals

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Koen Sapwell put up 43 points and the Central Districts Lions will look to ride that momentum into another NBL1 Central finals appearance after ending the regular season beating the Norwood Flames 110-100.

Centrals had locked away a finals berth already by winning their past two games to close the door on Norwood coming into Saturday night's match up at STARplex to close the regular season.

The Flames might not have been in contention anymore but still wanted to finish on a high and Thomas Kurowski gave them a sniff with 16 first half points, but Sapwell had 26 up the other end for the Lions.

Centrals would eventually convert that into the 10-point victory to finish the regular season at 10-8 in fifth position as they now look to make another playoff run after reaching last year's Grand Final before losing ultimately to the West Adelaide Bearcats.

Norwood end their season at 7-11 to miss the finals for a fourth consecutive season in the NBL1 Central.

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It was quite the entertaining affair to close the regular season with the Centrals benefitting from their aggressive attack on the rim to go 26/33 from the foul line 15/18 from the Flames along with hitting 12/29 from the outside to 7/28.

Central Districts now enter the finals with three straight wins with Koen Sapwell on fire ending up with the 43 points, three steals, two rebounds and two assists with shooting 15/23 from the field, 4/9 from the outside and 9/10 at the foul line.

Spencer Gaze also produced 27 points and three rebounds with 5/8 three-point shooting, Magok Manyang 18 points, 10 boards and two assists, and Kalani Sapwell 10 assists to go with two points, two rebounds and two steals.

Norwood finish a rollercoaster ride of a season with a 7-11 record with Thomas Kurowski again the standout with 29 points, six steals, five rebounds and five assists.

Inady Legiste also finished with 17 points and six rebounds, Oscar Sabine 16 points, four boards and two assists, Cooper Osborne 13 points and four rebounds, and Aydan Janssan eight points, five boards and five assists.

While one team might have been locked into the playoffs and other playing their last game of 2026, Norwood has shown at times they can more than take it up to the top teams and were out for a scalp to finish with.

And rookie import Thomas Kurowski has had a standout season and he had another 10 points in the first quarter to help the Flames to the 29-23 lead by quarter-time despite the 10 points already as well from Koen Sapwell for Centrals.

The Lions then responded in blistering fashion with a 39-point second quarter with Sapwell scoring 16 of those to have 26 by half-time and his team shot 12/20 from the quarter with 12/13 from the foul line for the period.

That saw Centrals head into half-time in control leading 62-46 but Norwood weren’t going away and another nine points from Kurowski saw him up to 25 points by three quarter-time but the Lions were still leading 88-72 with Sapwell up to 37.

The Flames never gave up fighting but in the end Centrals did enough for the 10-point win in an entertaining end to the regular season as they now take a three-game winning streak into the finals.

The season is now over for Norwood while Central Districts will take on the Woodville Warriors in an elimination final on Friday night at St Clair Recreation Centre.

NBL1 CENTRAL 2026 SEASON | FIRST NATIONS ROUND

CENTRAL DISTRICTS LIONS 110 (Koen Sapwell 43, Gaze 27, M Manyang 18)

NORWOOD FLAMES 100 (Kurowski 29, Legiste 17, Sabine 16)