North Grand Final | Gold Coast clinch championship

Featured image: @catchnkissphotography - Denise Saba

Lamar Patterson put up 40 points and gave the Ipswich Force a real shot of forcing the NBL1 North Grand Final to a Game 3 but the Gold Coast Rollers just had too many weapons to win the championship after prevailing 120-116.

The Grand Final series got underway on Friday night at The Southport School with Gold Coast flexing their muscles in a dominant display winning 118-85 to be one win away from a second championship in the past five years under coach Anthony Petrie.

Ipswich had made a stirring run to the Grand Final after ending the regular season sixth at 8-8 and then beating the Sunshine Coast Phoenix and undefeated Cairns Marlins on the road to enter the Grand Final series.

But they were still without former MVP Sam McDaniel who wasn’t released to play by the Brisbane Bullets ahead of NBL27 and it was going to take something special from Ipswich for a Game 3.

Gold Coast put up another 31 points in the first quarter to open up a 10-point lead and to still be on top 31-25 by quarter-time thanks to 13 points from Boston Mazlin.

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The Rollers still had no trouble scoring and put up another 32 points in the second period, but Ipswich were up for the fight and delivered 34 themselves and that limited the lead for Gold Coast to 63-59 by half-time.

Lamar Patterson scored 14 of those points himself for the Force to see their confidence growing that they could match it with the Rollers and give themselves a shot at forcing a decider on Sunday.

Patterson then had another 16 points on his own in the third quarter and Lachlan Anderson caught fire too to be up to 23 points by three quarter-time with the Force scoring 34 points for the term.

While they were scoring at will, so were Gold Coast and the home team still had another 30 themselves with the scores all tied at 93-93 heading into the fourth quarter.

Kane Bishop then hit two long balls to start the fourth quarter to put Ipswich up four and then Anderson extended that lead to six.

Ipswich continued to have the answers and were still up five with five minutes to play after a dunk to Merrick Small but then Gold Coast made their move with seven straight points capped by a triple from Jensen Bradtke to be back in front.

Patterson answered with a three-point play but Gold Coast just wouldn’t be denied and a couple of huge offensive rebounds from Bradtke for putbacks ended up being crucial.

Patterson didn’t quite have any more heroics left with the Rollers clinching the four-point win and it was only fitting they won the championship on another 120-point scoring performance.

It backs up the 2022 championship that Gold Coast won as they get some revenge on Ipswich for the 2023 series loss to them with Jensen Bradtke shining with 28 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks ahead of joining Melbourne United in NBL27.

Boston Mazlin took a charge on Lachlan Anderson late that proved crucial which was an almighty flop, but it paid off and he had a big say in the championship triumph with 24 points, seven assists, four rebounds and thee steals with 5/6 shooting from the outside.

Preston Le Gassick also had 23 points, seven assists, six rebounds and two steals ahead of joining the New Zealand Breakers in NBL27 while James Whitt will be at the Perth Wildcats and had 22 points, seven assists and three steals.

Brodie McGregor also contributed 17 points and two assists with 5/6 shooting from the field and 7/7 at the foul line.

Ipswich can be proud of their fight and will wonder what might have been had Sam McDaniel been available with Lamar Patterson brilliant with 40 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals on 16/25 shooting from the floor and 6/12 from the outside.

Merrick Small also had 29 points and 12 rebounds, Lachlan Anderson 19 points, seven boards and four assists, Kane Bishop 18 points on 5/6 shooting from the outside, and Jason Ralph 10 assists.

NBL1 NORTH 2026 SEASON | GRAND FINAL GAME 2

GOLD COAST ROLLERS 120 (Bradtke 28, Mazlin 24, Le Gassick 23)

IPSWICH FORCE 116 (Patterson 40, Small 29, Anderson 19)