East Finals | Maker stars as Crusaders advance

Featured image: @DiscoveryOne_Photography, Greg Francis

The Central Coast Crusaders were playing their first NBL1 East final and now have won their first post-season game with their 94-81 road win over the Centre of Excellence with Matur Maker delivering 28 points and 14 rebounds.

The CoE hadn’t played since losing their last six games of the regular season back on June 21 but they had still done enough to book in a home final at the Australian Institute of Sport having won 13 of their opening 14 matches.

Central Coast arrived having qualified for final for the first after having a combined 27-57 over the past four years with a best finish of 10th last year.

The Crusaders ended up in eighth place with a 10-10 record having won seven of the last 10 games as they took on a Centre of Excellence team having not played in five weeks, having a significant player turnover, and also now having a new coach with Michael Czepil replacing Robbie McKinlay.

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It was an entertaining opening to the contest with the Crusaders narrowly leading 26-25 by quarter-time before they managed another 27 to 22 in the second term to go into the half-time break leading 53-47.

That lead for Central Coast then got out to double figured in the third quarter but it was back to just a six-point margin again by three quarter-time.

The Crusaders then managed a run of 10 straight points in the fourth frame on the way to leading by as much as 15 and then winning by 13 to make it a first victory in their first finals appearance in the NBL1 East.

Central Coast ended up taking a massive 17 more shot attempts than the Centre of Excellence thanks to collecting 17 offensive rebounds and forcing their opponents into 20 turnovers.

The Crusaders now advance to a semi-final next Sunday against the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles with Matur Maker putting together a dominant performance made up of 28 points, 14 rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Garric Young also had 20 points and eight rebounds, Haidyn Gunderson 14 points, five assists and two boards, Aaron Redhead 11 points and five rebounds, Dylan Tea nine points, two boards and two steals, and Luke Cassidy nine points, 11 assists and four rebounds.

The season is over now for the Centre of Excellence having lost their last seven matches after starting off going 13-1 with Jai Fa'ale finishing with 28 points and two rebounds with 10/20 field goal shooting and 5/8 from the free-throw line.

Will Hamilton added 22 points and five rebounds, Curtis Evic 11 points, 11 boards and five blocked shots, and Yahya Basaran 11 points, six rebounds and two assists.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | ELIMINATION FINAL

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE 81 (Fa'ale 28, Hamilton 22, Evic 11, Basaran 11)

CENTRAL COAST CRUSADERS 94 (Maker 28, Young 20, Gunderson 14)