Central Spotlight | McVeigh the hero as Panthers win in OT

Featured image: Tia De Santis | @tia.desantis

The teams battled over top spot as the NBL1 Central's form teams and Lloyd McVeigh hit the winner and Daniel Johnson missed the chance to force a second overtime with the South Adelaide Panthers beating the Forestville Eagles 86-84.

The teams arrived at Mitchell Park Sprots and Community Centre on winning streaks including the previous night where South Adelaide beat West Adelaide to make it nine straight while Forestville won their seventh in-a-row beating the Sturt Sabres.

That set the stage for the Sunday clash in the rematch of the 2024 Grand Final and with the individual match up of championship teammates Alex Starling and Jeremy Smith worth the price of admission alone.

Starling did well hounding Smith into a tough afternoon and it proved quite the dramatic contest the whole way with two late huge three-pointers from Jordan Forbes, including one on the buzzer, getting the game to overtime.

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Then at the end of the extra period, Smith collected an offensive rebound and dished off to Lloyd McVeigh inside for what proved the winning score when Daniel Johnson missed under the basket up the other end.

South Adelaide scored the two-point win to make it 10 in-a-row to both Forestville and Sturt now on 10-2 records in a game where they only had seven free-throw attempts and conceded 25.

McVeigh not only hit the game winner but finished with 29 points, 10 rebounds and three steals while shooting 12/21 from the floor and 4/8 from behind the arc.

Smith had to deal with Starling up in his grill for most of his 43 minutes, but still managed 16 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals despite 8/26 field goal shooting.

Rio Bruton caught fire late in the third quarter on his way to 15 points, three rebounds and two steals with Daniel Smith contributing eight points, four boards, three steals and two assists, and Jonty Smith eight points and two rebounds.

Forestville split their weekend against their two fellow 10-2 teams with Greg Mays top scoring with 22 points to go with 10 rebounds and two blocked shots.

Daniel Johnson also had 21 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals, Jordan Forbes 18 points, five boards and five assists with 4/8 three-point shooting, and Starling nine points, 14 rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

It always had the hallmarks of being one of the games of the NBL1 Central season with both teams also coming off wins on Saturday to have momentum coming into it for the Sunday clash.

Forestville did have the better of the start with Alex Starling putting the clamps on Jeremy Smith, and the Eagles opened up an 11-point lead and were still on top 25-18 by quarter-time.

After that lead got back out to 12 for the Eagles in the second frame, South Adelaide got back into the contest with 24 to 21 for the term to cut the Forestville edge to 46-42 by half-time.

The Eagles were shooting 51 per cent from the field and had seven free throws to one with Greg Mays having 12 points, Jordan Forbes 10 and Daniel Johnson 10, but they also had 10 turnovers.

South Adelaide stayed in touch with Lloyd McVeigh up to 14 points with the home team shooting 44 per cent from the floor and 7/15 from three-point territory.

Rio Bruton shot the Panthers right back into the contest with three quick three balls late in the third quarter and that saw the home side leading 62-61 by three quarter-time to set up a big finish.

South Adelaide did have a seven-point lead and looked on track for the win, but Forestville wouldn’t go away and one huge three from Forbes with two minutes to go made it a three-point game.

That's where the margin remained ahead of the last possession of regulation and it was Forbes once again with the double clutch that led to him chucking up the three-point attempt that went down.

That tied scores up at 78-78 to force the extra five minutes and it was quite the tense overtime period, and in the end it was an offensive rebound to Smith for South Adelaide that allowed him to set up the match winning play.

Smith found McVeigh inside after that o-board and he made the finish to give the Panthers the two-point lead leading to a Forestville timeout.

They ran a good play to get the ball inside the Johnson and he had a good look under the basket to send the game to a second overtime, but he couldn’t finish and South Adelaide were left to celebrate.

South Adelaide will be next in action on Saturday June 13 when they host the Woodville Warriors while Forestville will be at home to the Southern Tigers that same evening.

NBL1 CENTRAL 2026 SEASON | HERITAGE ROUND

SOUTH ADELAIDE PANTHERS 86 (McVeigh 29, Smith 16, Bruton 15)

FORESTVILLE EAGLES 84 (Mays 22, Johnosn 21, Forbes 18)