Central Spotlight | Lions stay alive with Seymour's 33

Featured image: Courtney McCabe, @cjm.edia

Jayden Seymour delivered 33 points and 13 rebounds to lead the way for the Central Districts Lions as they opened the NBL1 Central playoffs with the 90-79 elimination final win against the Woodville Warriors.

It was the first game of the NBL1 Central finals on Friday night at St Clair Recreation Centre in a rematch of the qualifying final at the same time last year.

On that occasion the two teams finished the regular season in second and third with Centrals winning 116-84 on the way to making the Grand Final and this time around it was a match up with the fourth and fifth ranked teams.

Bennett Sherry had 13 points in the first quarter to help Woodville to the flying start but Central Districts took over from there and built a 20-point lead by the fourth quarter on the way to the eventual 11-point victory to end the season of Woodville and book in a semi-final spot against the loser of the Sturt-South Adelaide qualifying final.

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By the end of the contest Centrals were shooting 50 per cent from the field to 35 from Woodville along with 21/32 to 18/25 at the free-throw line and got the win despite the 17 turnovers, giving up 14 offensive rebounds and getting up 13 fewer shots.

The Lions kept their season alive with Jayden Seymour ultimately the major difference between the two teams with 33 points, 13 rebounds and three assists with 12/20 shooting from the floor and 8/11 at the foul line.

Spencer Gaze also had 14 points, six rebounds and two assists, Koen Sapwell 121 points, 10 assists and five boards, Magok Manyang 11 points, nine rebounds and two steals, Kalani Sapwell 11 points and three assists, and Alex Day eight points, two rebounds and two assists.

The season is over now for the Warriors with Uzo Dibiamaka ending up with 23 points and three assists with 5/8 shooting from the outside.

Bennett Sherry had 13 points in the first quarter and finished with 15 with seven rebounds while Awak Machar had 14 points, Nick Wurm nine points and six assists, LJ Booth Jr 10 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks, and Joe Jackson eight points, nine boards and four assists.

The loser's season would be over and Woodville made the flying start with an 11-point lead in the first quarter before the Lions responded with a 10-0 run and by quarter-time the scores were all level at 21-21.

Bennett Sherry already had 13 points on 3/3 shooting from the outside for Woodville but Centrals went 6/11 from the free-throw line to 2/2.

The Lions then worked on top in the second quarter by completing a 13-0 scoring run and putting 23 points to 18 to go into half-time leading 45-39 with Jayden Seymour up to 13 points while they were going 11/17 from the foul line to 6/8 to be leading despite the 12 few shot attempts.

It was another 21 points to 15 in favour of Central Districts in the third quarter with the lead getting out to 12 points and that's where it sat by three quarter-time with Seymour already having 22 points and 10 rebounds to be proving the major difference between the two teams.

Centrals then ended up leading by as much as 20 in the last quarter before winning by 11 and keeping their season alive to now advance to a first semi-final next week against either the Sturt Sabres or South Adelaide Panthers who clash in a qualifying final on Saturday.

NBL1 CENTRAL 2026 SEASON | ELIMINATION FINAL

WOODVILLE WARRIORS 79 (Dibiamaka 23, Sherry 15, Machar 14)

CENTRAL DISTRICTS LIONS 90 (Seymour 33, Gaze 14, Koen Sapwell 11, Kalani Sapwell 11, M Manyang 11)