Central Spotlight | Panthers make it a double win Anzac Round

Featured image: Melissa Belanic | @justbphotoau

The South Adelaide Panthers enjoyed their Anzac Day weekend winning for a second time in less than 24 hours with Sunday's 73-64 home victory in the NBL1 Central against the North Adelaide Rockets.

South Adelaide were back home at Mitchell Park Sports and Community Centre on the back of the Anzac Day road win over the Central Districts Lions while the Rockets arrived trying to respond to their home defeat to the Woodville Warriors.

The Panthers had opened up a 12-point advantage by the second quarter and that stretched to 18 early in the fourth before they secured the nine-point win for the double victory weekend and to improve to 5-2 on the season as a result.

North Adelaide have now lost three straight to be 1-6 for the season now after six rounds.

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Neither team had great shooting performances but ultimately the big difference was South Adelaide going 21/30 at the foul line to just 5/7 from North Adelaide while the Panthers forced the Rockets into 20 turnovers while they pulled down 17 offensive rebounds to 10.

Bella Stratford top-scored for South Adelaide in the win with 17 points, three rebounds and three assists with 3/6 shooting from behind the arc, and 4/5 at the free-throw line.

Hannah Gardiner also had 12 points, four rebounds and two assists, Keira Gardiner 12 points, 11 boards and two blocks, Daisy Hocking 12 points, 10 rebounds and four steals, and Bianca Stasinowsky 10 points and five boards.

Jordyn Freer finished the afternoon with 20 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals for North Adelaide with Sarah Warner adding 14 points, six boards and four assists.

Shannon Webber added nine points and two assists, and Abbey Jones pulled down 22 rebounds to go with eight points, five assists and four blocked shots.

Both teams were backing up from playing the previous night with South Adelaide coming off a win and North Adelaide a defeat, and it proved to be a tight battle in the opening term.

The Panthers were narrowly leading 22-19 by the end of the first quarter on the back of getting to the foul line 10 times to just the one from the Rockets.

It was another 19 points to 14 in the second period in favour of South Adelaide with another seven free-throw attempts to four with Isabella Stratford having 10 points going into the break to help the Panthers lead 41-33.

Abbey Jones was doing her best to keep North Adelaide in the contest with six points, 14 rebounds and three assists by half-time.

Jordyn Freer fired up for a massive third quarter for the Rockets but they still couldn’t make too many inroads with South Adelaide extending their lead to 12 by there quarter-time even while only shooting 3/16 in the term for their 17 points with nine of them coming at the foul line.

The lead for the Panthers got out to 18 points in the last quarter before they ended up securing the nine-point home win after a big finish from North Adelaide.

South Adelaide will now be on the road to the Woodville Warriors on Saturday night with North Adelaide also away from home against the Central Districts Lions.

NBL1 CENTRAL 2026 SEASON | ANZAC ROUND

SOUTH ADELAIDE PANTHERS 73 (Stratford 17, Hocking 12, K Gardiner 12, H Gardiner 12)

NORTH ADELAIDE ROCKETS 64 (J Freer 20, Warner 14, Webber 9)