North Spotlight | Moorer leads Gold Coast to bounce back win

Featured image: @catchnkissphotography - Denise Saba

Ariana Moorer showed her class and experience to lead the response from the Gold Coast Rollers to a big first up loss this NBL1 North season to beat the Ipswich Force 76-70 at home on Sunday.

It wasn’t the sort of effort to open the season the Rollers were hoping for with the 45-point loss to the defending champion Logan Thunder last week on the back of only putting 49 points on the board.

They were back home this Sunday at Carrara Indoor Sports Stadium hosting an Ipswich team who got a first up win at home as well to the South West Metro Pirates.

With Moorer showing the way, Gold Coast were on top most of the afternoon including being up by 11 points in the third quarter, but Ipswich fired back and even hit the front briefly early in the last term thanks to an and-one from Georgia Ralph.

The Rollers again responded after that and secured the six-point victory with both teams now 1-1 after their opening two games.

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Ariana Moorer didn’t quite the have the impact she would have hoped in the season-opener for Gold Coast against Logan but she was the biggest difference between the Rollers and Force on Sunday.

She finished the afternoon with 23 points, 10 rebounds and five assists to with going 15/18 at the free-throw line in her 38 minutes.

Emma Petrie also delivered 19 points and five rebounds on 7/9 shooting, Tara Manumaleuga 12 points, five steals, four boards and three assists, Maya Barnes nine points and six rebounds, and Nyah Morris seven points, four boards and three steals.

There were plenty of encouraging signs from Ipswich even if they couldn’t quite back up their first up win at home to the South West Metro Pirates.

Valerie Huerta finished with 19 points, five rebounds, five steals and four assists for Ipswich with Georgia Ralph stepping up for 19 points and two assists on 3/9 three-point shooting while the rest of the team only went 1/16 from behind the arc.

Hannah Young also had seven points and six rebounds, Natasha Elliott five points and eight boards, and Courtenay Wragg five points and six rebounds.

It was a rough initiation to the season last week for Gold Coast against Logan but Ariana Moorer came out on a mission on Sunday to help them up to a nine-point lead in the opening quarter.

The Rollers were still up 20-15 by quarter-time and while only shooting 38 per cent, they got to the foul line 13 times to just four from Ipswich on the way to the lead after one.

The Rollers did remain on top through the second quarter but Ipswich followed their lead by attacking the basket and got to the foul line nine times for the term and that helped them stay in touch.

Despite shooting just 30 per cent and having nine turnovers, the Force had closed the Gold Coast lead to 37-33 by half-time with Moorer the major difference with 13 points, seven rebounds, four assists and 10 free-throw attempts already for the Rollers.

Gold Coast pushed back out to an 11-point lead in the third quarter but Ipswich managed to hit back and closed the deficit to just six again by three quarter-time to set up a big finish.

Georgia Ralph then went up a gear in the fourth quarter and when she completed a three-point play it was Ipswich suddenly in front just a couple of minutes into the final term.

Gold Coast managed to immediately respond and it was an and-one play in response from Maya Barnes that got them back up four just a couple of minutes later.

While the Force kept on coming, the Rollers had the answers and both Tara Manumaleuga and Moorer sealed the win for the home team at the foul line as they won by six.

Gold Coast will be on the road now on Saturday night against the North Gold Coast Seahawks in a local battle while Ipswich will be at home also on Saturday against the Mackay Meteorettes.

NBL1 NORTH 2026 SEASON | ANZAC ROUND

GOLD COAST ROLLERS 76 (Moorer 23, Petrie 19, Manumaleuga 12)

IPSWICH FORCE 70 (Huerta 19, Ralph 19, Young 7)