Central Spotlight | Smith, McVeigh fire Panthers to another win

Featured image: Tia De Santis | @tia.desa

Jeremy Smith had 20 points in the first half, Lloyd McVeigh 19 in the third quarter and they combined for 65 as the South Adelaide Panthers made it seven straight NBL1 Central wins beating the Eastern Mavericks 108-89.

The Panthers were back home at Mitchell Park Sports and Community Centre putting their six-game winning streak on the line against a Mavericks team coming off their own win against the West Adelaide Bearcats.

Smith set the tone to continue his hot form with 12 points in the first quarter and 20 in the opening half before McVeigh broke the game wide open with 19 points in the third term.

That saw South Adelaide on the path to the eventual 19-point victory to make it six on the trot and to improve to a 7-2 record with the Mavs now 3-6 and having lost five of their past six.

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The Panthers finished the game shooting 57 per cent from the field to the 49 from the Mavericks while also getting an up an extra seven shot attempts across the night.

Jeremy Smith set the tone for the Panthers with 20 points in the first half on the way to 29 for the night with eight rebounds and five assists while shooting 11/17 from the floor and 7/9 at the foul line.

Then it was Lloyd McVeigh who was unstoppable in the third quarter with 19 points and ending up with 36 for the game to go with nine rebounds, three assists and three steals while shooting 16/28 from the field and 4/11 from downtown.

Rio Bruton added 17 points, four rebounds and two blocks, Yevgen Sakhniuk 14 points, eight assists, six boards and three blocks, and Jonty Smith five points and three rebounds.

The Mavericks are now 3-6 on the season following the loss with Curtis Scott ending up top scoring with 22 points with seven assists, three rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

Christian Peevy added 20 points, three rebounds and two assists for the Mavs, BJ Symons 10 points, four boards and two assists, Dylan Marshall 10 points and four rebounds, and Harry Morris 10 points, seven boards and two steals.

South Adelaide were back at home on a six-game winning streak and made a strong start to open up a 26-19 advantage by quarter-time on the Mavericks with Jeremy Smith continuing his red-hot form to have 12 points already.

Smith had another eight points in the second quarter and the Panthers put up 24 with Lloyd McVeigh working into the game nicely too to go into half-time with 11 points and eight rebounds with his team leading 50-42.

Not much separated the teams besides the 10 extra shots that South Adelaide took largely on the back of the 10 offensive rebounds they pulled down and the seven turnovers they forced the Mavs into.

The Panthers then really caught fire in the third quarter and more particularly McVeigh did as he scored 19 of his team's 33 points with them on the way to leading 83-65 by three quarter-time.

From there South Adelaide had the win secured and went on to prevail by 19 points to make it seven straight victories to go into next week's break.

South Adelaide will next take on the second ranked Sturt Sabres when the NBL1 Central resumes on Saturday May 23 while the Mavericks will be up against the Forestville Eagles on the road.

NBL1 CENTRAL 2026 SEASON | ROUND 1

SOUTH ADELAIDE PANTHERS 108 (McVeigh 36, Smith 29, Bruton 17)

EASTERN MAVERICKS 89 (Scott 22, Peevy 20, Morris 10, Marshall 10, Symons 10)