South Finals | Huge Eltham finish gets them through

Featured image: William Hand @hoopcultureau 

The running battle between Mitch McCarron and Harry Froling was worth the price of admission alone but the Eltham Wildcats had a massive final quarter to come from behind and book in a home NBL1 South preliminary final beating the Dandenong Rangers 87-69.

Both teams have put together squads that have high aspirations in 2026 but their season would be over for one of them at the end of Saturday night's qualifying final at the Montmorency Secondary College.

Eltham ended up the regular season in second spot only missing out on top spot thanks to losing the head-to-head with the Melbourne Tigers that earned them a break in the first week of the finals and then hosting rights for the second round.

Dandenong finished in seventh spot which meant they had to play last week and they beat the Kilsyth Cobras in a dramatic affair on their home floor to set up the match up with Eltham.

The tension was turned right up from the outset and by quarter-time it was a narrow 17-15 lead for Eltham despite nine points with 3/6 shooting from the outside for Dandenong from Joe Palmer who will always remember this season for getting married along the way.

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Dandenong managed to go on a 10-0 run in the second quarter and opened up a seven-point advantage and were then clinging to the 37-36 lead by the half on 7/17 shooting from the outside to 2/10 from the Wildcats.

Palmer was up to 12 points for the Rangers with Joe Davidson adding 11 while Zak Cunningham was top scoring for Eltham with 10.

Things really started to get entertaining and hostile during the third quarter particularly between 270-game NBL veteran McCarron who was doing all he could to push the buttons of Froling.

Even though that was working to a degree, that tends to only make Froling want to prove a point more with ball in and the officials were letting plenty to go and not only were no techs handing out, but not even any warnings along the way for any of the antics.

But Dandenong did push their advantage out to 58-53 by three quarter-time and Froling was having a significant all-round impact with 12 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists while the Rangers were still shooting 11/26 from the outside to 3/13.

The Rangers were then up seven early in the fourth quarter and the gauntlet was thrown down to the Wildcats, but they were up to the challenge by scoring the next 10 points to grab the lead which was kickstarted by three balls to Cunningham and Sam Whelan.

All of a sudden by the time Whelan hit another triple with four minutes left, Eltham were up eight before Harrison Hornery made it 11 with a triple and then he scored on the inside to make it 13.

That completed a stunning 24-4 run with the Wildcats turning the game on its head and then winning from 18 from there to advance and set up a home preliminary final against the Nunawading Spectres.

Harrison Hornery ended up with 22 points and seven rebounds for Eltham with Mitch McCarron having a standout all-round performance with 16 points, 12 boards, six assists and five steals with 2/2 three-point shooting.

Zak Cunningham also had 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists, Sam Whelan 11 points with 3/5 shooting from the outside and TJ Weeks eight points, three rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

Leonardo Colimerio was also having a solid impact with nine points, three assists, two rebounds and two steals before leaving the game injured.

The wild ride that was the 2026 season for Dandenong is now over with Joe Palmer delivering 22 points on 5/12 shooting from the outside.

Harry Froling just missed a triple double with 14 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists with Sam Davidson contributing 17 points and three boards, and Josh Kunen nine points and eight rebounds.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | QUALIFYING FINAL

ELTHAM WILDCATS 87 (Hornery 22, Cunningham 16, McCarron 16)

DANDENONG RANGERS 69 (Palmer 22, Davidson 17, Froling 14)