Central Spotlight | Mabrey shines as Flames open account

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Dara Mabrey is quite the high-profile NBL1 Central signing for the Norwood Flames and she delivered big time in her second hit out with 24 points to help them open their account with the 80-68 road win over the Southern Tigers.

Mabrey was solid first up last week for the Flames in her NBL1 Central debut following her standout college career finishing at Notre Dame and then starting her professional career in Poland, Hungary and Greece.

The sister of Michaela and Marina, who herself played in Australia in the WNBL at the Perth Lynx, had 16 points last week in Norwood's first up loss to the Woodville Warriors but came up huge on Saturday against the Tigers at Morphett Vale Basketball Stadium.

She already had 16 points by half-time with Norwood only narrowly leading by seven but they pushed that out quickly in the third quarter and ended up scoring the 80-68 victory.

It's a fourth straight win for Norwood against the Tigers and 11 of the last 13 going back further, and it was despite shooting just 39 per cent from the field and 5/28 from deep.

But the Flames went 18/21 at the foul line and restricted the Tigers to 40 per cent shooting, 7/22 from downtown and 11/20 at the stripe.

It's quite the coup for the Flames to bring Mabrey to the NBL1 Central. She offered a glimpse into what she's capable of in the win with 24 points, three assists and two rebounds even while only shooting 2/9 from three-point range.

She did go 6/9 inside the arc and 6/6 at the foul line to be a +10 in the game in the finish in the 31:38 she played.

She had plenty of help too with Cali Clark threatening a triple-double with 15 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists with Amy Cotton delivering 18 points and six rebounds.

Maddy Hinton also ended up with nine points, four rebounds and two assists, and Caitlin Shillabeer nine points, four assists and three boards.

The Tigers couldn’t quite back up their first up win last Saturday with Holly Forbes finishing with another 16 points, five rebounds and two steals.

Mollie McKendrick delivered another 14 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists to threaten a triple-double for Southern with Jhazmin Joson putting up nine points, five assists and four rebounds having made the move from the NBL1 West in the off-season.

Rosie Williamson also had nine points, five rebounds and four assists, and Sophie Rogers eight points and eight rebounds.

It was a solid start from Norwood to be leading 20-15 by the end of the first quarter with 12 points in the paint to six and having gone on a 9-0 scoring run to get on top of the Tigers.

The Flames maintained that advantage through the second quarter as well to head into the half-time break leading 42-35 with Dara Mabrey on fire going for 16 points even though her team was shooting just 4/16 from three-point range in the opening 20 minutes.

Norwood then pushed that lead out beyond double-figures early in the second half with seven quick points from Maddy Hinton before then completing the job for the eventual 12-point victory to bounce back from their season-opening loss to the Warriors.

The Flames remain on the road against the South Adelaide Panthers on Thursday night ahead of the Easter long weekend while the Tigers are in action the same evening away to the North Adelaide Rockets.

NBL CENTRAL 2026 SEASON | ROUND 2

SOUTHERN TIGERS 68 (Forbes 16, McKendrick 14, Joson 9, Williamson 9)

NORWOOD FLAMES 79 (Mabrey 24, Cotton 18, Clark 15)