Central Spotlight | McVeigh, Smith hand Sabres first defeat

Featured image: Tia De Santis | @tia.desantis

Lloyd McVeigh and Jeremy Smith led the charge and the South Adelaide Panthers made it eight straight NBL1 Central wins and not only handed the Sturt Sabres a first defeat, but did it in dominant fashion winning 103-79.

The two form teams of the NBL1 Central locked horns on Saturday night at Mitchell Park Sports and Community Centre with Sturt arriving unbeaten after nine games and South Adelaide having won seven in-a-row after two first up losses to the Sabres and the Forestville Eagles.

South Adelaide shot out of the blocks to already be leading 61-43 by half-time and then going on with the job from there to emphatically hand the Sabres a first loss of 2026 after they had won their opening nine matches by an average of almost 11 points.

South Adelaide improves to 8-2 as a result of the win with their eight straight victories now coming at an average of 16.9 points with the Sabres now 9-1 after the first defeat.

>> CENTRAL WRAP | MEN'S ROUND 8

The Panthers ended up shooting 53 per cent from the field with 13/32 from three-point range and 12/16 at the foul line while having 24 assists for those 39 made shots and 12 free throws.

It was another statement performance from South Adelaide with Lloyd McVeigh delivering 31 points, 11 rebounds and four assists with 6/11 three-point shooting while also playing standout defence on Jacob Rigoni.

Jeremy Smith also continued his MVP-level form with another 21 points, 12 assists, six rebounds and two steals with 8/12 field goal shooting and going 5/6 at the foul line.

Rio Bruton added 17 points, six rebounds, four blocks, three steals and two assists, Yevgen Sakhniuk 12 points and six boards, Jonty Smith 11 points and two assists, and Koby Moir seven points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Sturt suffered a first loss of the season while shooting at just 38 per cent from the field with 7/26 from behind the arc and getting up 10 fewer shots than South Adelaide despite 12 more free throws.

Josh Tomasi top scored or the Sabres with 18 points and six rebounds on 8/12 field goal shooting with DJ Vasiljevic finishing with 15 points and three rebounds on just the nine shot attempts in only 23 minutes.

Rigoni also shot just 2/9 for the game for only 10 points with three rebounds while Seb Griffin added seven points, four rebounds and two steals, and Luke Pfitzner seven points and two rebounds.

South Adelaide had been in hot form prior to last week's break with seven straight wins and they started on fire hosting the undefeated Sabres with 32 points to 20 in the first quarter on the back of shooting almost 70 per cent from the field.

South Adelaide then piled on another 29 points to 23 in the second quarter and that saw the Panthers well in control leading 61-43 at half-time with Sturt's unbeaten record in real jeopardy.

Lloyd McVeigh already had 18 points for South Adelaide with Jeremy Smith providing another 15 along with eight assists while DJ Vasiljevic had 12 points for Sturt going at virtually a point a minute.

The Panthers then blew the game further open to start the second half with the lead getting out to 20 and it got out to as much as 26 in the fourth quarter as South Adelaide went to make a real statement.

The Panthers secured the 24-point win against a Sabres team that had been yet to lose so far in 2026 to make it eight straight wins to now be the hottest team in NBL1 Central.

South Adelaide now will have a double header next weekend away to the West Adelaide Bearcats and home to the Forestville Eagles while Sturt will look to bounce back away to the Forestville Eagles and at home to the Central Districts Lions.

NBL1 CENTRAL 2026 SEASON | ROUND 9

SOUTH ADELAIDE PANTHERS 103 (McVeigh 31, Smith 21, Bruton 17)

STURT SABRES 79 (Tomasi 18, Vasiljevic 15, Rigoni 10)