Central Spotlight | Sabres beat Warriors in GF rematch

Featured image: @snapshotphotography3 / Snap Shot Photography 

The Sturt Sabres continue to chase that elusive NBL1 Central championship and have made the perfect start to 2026 with the 79-56 Thursday night grand final rematch win against the Woodville Warriors.

The Easter Thursday match up took place at St Clair Recreation Centre as the two teams renewed hostilities from last year's NBL1 Central grand final which saw the Warriors knock off the Sabres.

It was a third grand final defeat for Sturt in the past four years and they have come into 2026 again on a mission having won their first two matches on arrival to see the Warriors raise that championship banner in front of them.

Sturt made a flying start on the back of that to lead 11-2. Then the Sabres scored the first 10 points of the second half on the way to the eventual 23-point victory to improve to 3-0 to start 2026.

Katia Stamatelopoulos was outstanding in the win for the Sabres with 23 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals with 8/11 shooting from the field and 3/5 from downtown.

Tayla Brazel added 18 points, five rebounds and five assists while Nicola Mathews delivered 17 points, nine boards and eight assists, and Meg Prosser 14 points, four rebounds and three assists.

Woodville are now 1-2 on the season following the loss in their first home game of 2026 with Lealani Falatea top-scoring with 16 points, five rebounds and four steals despite shooting 5/21 from the field.

Naomi Allotey added 10 points and three rebounds while Brittany Hodges did have 10 points, four rebounds and two steals but her night was made a misery by the Sabres defence. She shot just 2/8 while having four turnovers and being -22 in 22:35 of court time.

Sturt got out to the flying start with an 11-2 opening to the game and in the first quarter Tayla Brazel had 10 points with a couple of three-pointers while Katia Stamatelopoulos had seven on a perfect 3/3 shooting.

The Sabres were still leading 23-19 by quarter-time but the Warriors had done well to work back into the contest to only by down by four.

Sturt took back control in the second quarter with another 24 points to 17 with their lead out to as much as 15 before half-time, and by the break it was the Sabres on top 47-36.

The Sabres then took further charge to start the second half when they scored the opening 10 points to push out to a 21-point lead, and then by three quarter-time they were still up by 16.

Neither team could get much going in the final stanza as they combined for just the 21 points but Sturt still had 14 points to seven on the way to the eventual 23-point victory.

Woodville are now next in action next Saturday when they host the Central Districts Lions while the Sabres will be at home to the Forestville Eagles in a rematch from last year's finals series.

NBL1 CENTRAL 2026 SEASON | ROUND 3

WOODVILLE WARRIORS 56 (Falatea 16, Allotey 10, Hodges 10)

STURT SABRES 79 (Stamatelopoulos 23, Brazel 18, Mathews 17)