NBL1 Wildcard Recap | Round 13 Saturday

The NBL1 Wildcard had two spectacularly close games, in two very different ways. Read below to see how they went. 

Women’s 

Newcastle Falcons (72 )def by Centre of Exellence (74)

In the nail-biting finish, the CoE clawed out the win against the fourth in the East Falcons by two points in Newcastle. 

The battle of former teammates took place as the silver medallist U19 Gems Chyra Evans and Nyadiew Puoch were trading blows inside the paint. 

Pouch 13 points, 9 rebounds, four steals and three blocks against Evans’ 23 points (5/11 three’s) and six rebounds. But coming off a Footlocker Player of the Week performance Nicole Munger had 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists as the Falcons almost closed the win. 

Late heroics from the CoE at the free throw line won the game as Opal Bird and Isobel Borlase made one charity stipe shot each to push the game out of distance. 

Men’s 

Frankston Blues (103) def Centre of Excellence (72) 

The Blues have pulled off an important win at home, the large margin was necessary as now they sit as the top team on the NBL1 Wildcard men’s ladder. 

Whoever finishes as the top seed in the Wildcard ladder (by beating the CoE by the most points) will go into the Coles Express NBL1 National Finals in the Wildcard seed, if they do not win their conference final. 

Frankston put their all into this game to secure their ticket to the National Final, three players scored 18 points or more as Lachlan Barker led the way with 23 points. 

CoE’s Rory Hawke had a game-high 25 points as the CoE kept things close until the second half was the Blues came out of the third-time huddle on a rampage scoring 32 points in the final term. 

Mandatory credit: Ian Knight Photography