North Finals | Force shock Marlins to reach GF

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The Ipswich Force arrived with a quiet confidence in the Far North on Friday and weren’t overawed by the challenge against the undefeated Cairns Marlins and booked an NBL1 North Grand Final spot winning 102-91 with Lamar Patterson and Lachlan Anderson outstanding.

If ever the old adage that what you've done previously guarantees you nothing in the future was on show it was at Trinity Ford Stadium on Saturday night when everything was pointing in the direction of the Marlins locking in a home Grand Final series.

Cairns had completed the first ever undefeated regular season anywhere in the country for a men's NBL1 team going 16-0 before earning a week off last weekend awaiting their semi-final opponents on their home floor.

Ipswich ended up at 8-8 by the end of the regular season to just nab eighth position before beating the Sunshine Coast Phoenix on the road to open the playoffs and set up the match up with the Marlins.

They were still without former MVP Sam McDaniel who hadn’t made it back from the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in time, but still Ipswich arrived in Cairns on Friday in preparation for the match up with a quiet confidence about them.

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Then if Cairns weren’t raging favourites before the game enough, they were even more so by quarter-time after they had already opened up a 25-14 advantage having gone on an 8-0 scoring run.

That lead for the Marlins got out to 11 in the second quarter too but Ipswich then got back into the contest and the Cairns lead was back to just 43-39 by half-time.

Ipswich's confidence then was growing that they really could pull off the almighty upset with 31 points in the third quarter, the only problem was that Cairns still scored 31 themselves to be up still 74-70 by three quarter-time.

But Lamar Patterson and Lachlan Anderson were up for the challenge and had combined for 47 of those 70 points for Ipswich and then they took control in the fourth term.

Ipswich were able to play with the freedom of no expectations and suddenly the pressure of that undefeated season started to rise the tension within the Marlins, and it showed.

The Force piled on 32 points in the final term on shooting11/19 from the field with 8/10 at the foul line with the Marlins getting tight and managing just the 17 points on 4/20 shooting and 1/5 from the outside while also having five turnovers.

That saw Ipswich pull off the most miraculous of upsets despite having won eight fewer games through the season than Cairns to now set up a fascinating Grand Final series next weekend still on the road to the Gold Coast Rollers.

By the end of the night, the Force were shooting 51 per cent from the field and 19/22 at the foul line with Lachlan Anderson unstoppable with 43 points and four rebounds with 8/15 shooting from the outside.

Lamar Patterson showed how much he still has to give with 31 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals with Will Mahoney contributing 10 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals, Merrick Small eight points and 15 boards, and Jason Ralph six points and four assists.

It's a heartbreaking way for the perfect season of Cairns to come to an end with 45 per cent shooting and going 6/22 from the outside with MVP Kody Stattmann providing 28 points, seven rebound and two assists.

Luca Yates also had 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists, Kobe McDowell-White 17 points, eight assists, four boards and four steals, Amarco Doyle 10 points and seven rebounds, and James Mitchell seven points, six boards and four assists.

NBL1 NORTH 2026 SEASON | SEMI FINALS

CAIRNS MARLINS 91 (Kody Stattmann 28, Yates 20, McDowell-White 17)

IPSWICH FORCE 102 (Anderson 43, Patterson 31, Mahoney 10)