South Finals | Malith, Adnam lift Sabres over Cavs

Featured image: Mitchell Barlow

The Sandringham Sabres came back from 16 points down with Kyle Adnam putting up 24 points in the second half and Malith Machar 34 for the game as the defending NBL1 South champions eliminated the Casey Cavaliers with the 99-91 win.

The opening weekend of the NBL1 South finals wrapped up on Sunday afternoon at Southern Basketball Stadium with the elimination final between the Sabres and Cavaliers.

As defending champions, Sandringham had a rollercoaster ride all season with players continuously in and out, but they did finish eighth at 12-10 on the back of last Friday's 50-point win over the Northern Force where Adnam set a new NBL scoring record with 70 points and 13 three-pointers.

Casey also a bumpy road on the way to 12-10 in ninth spot winning 11 of 15 games through the middle point of the season but losing opening three and three of the last four matches.

That set up a tantalising match up with their seasons on the line on Sunday and it was the Cavaliers away from home with the better of the start leading 29-21 by quarter on 60 per cent shooting while not having a single turnover.

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That lead for the Cavs got out to as much as 16 points during the second quarter but then Sandringham got back into the contest and it was Malith Machar doing a lot of the heavy lifting on his way to 19 first half points with 4/6 three-point shooting.

Jesse Ghee also had 14 points with 3/5 shooting from the outside for Casey with Preston Bungei adding 13 and the visitors were clinging to the 52-48 advantage by half-time with Adnam having just the six points on 2/8 shooting for Sandringham after his 70-point exploding nine days ago.

It was in the third quarter where Adnam did take charge, though, and after the Cavs did all they could to get the ball out of his hands and deny him shots in the first half, he began to break free.

As a result, of the 33 points in the quarter from the Sabres, Adnam scored 18 of them while shooting 6/7 from the field and as a team they went 11/18 with 4/8 from the outside.

Despite that, Casey still had 30 more points on 12/21 shooting up the other end to remain clinging to the 82-81 lead by three quarter-time.

Sandringham then worked on top early in the fourth quarter and things turned their way further when Luke Kendall got a tech foul but the Cavs coach did appear to have good reason to be upset when a jump ball was called on a play where Adnam did appear to blatantly foul Joel Robinson.

The Sabres went up four when Adnam hit the technical free-throw before he scored again to make the lead six before hit a massive three with four minutes to play to put the reigning champions up seven.

They remained on top the rest of the way for the eventual eight-point victory to now advance to a qualifying final net Saturday night against the Melbourne Tigers in a mouth watering Grand Final rematch.

The Sabres ended up outscoring the Cavs 51 points to 39 in the second half to keep their title defence alive with Malith Machar finishing with 34 points and four rebounds with 6/10 shooting from the outside.

It might have been less than half of what he scored last Friday night, but Kyle Adnam had 30 points of which 24 were in the second half with seven assists and shooting 10/22 from the field, 3/10 from downtown and 7/8 at the foul line.

Kyle Bowen also had 19 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals, and Elliott Brown eight points, six assists and two boards.

It's the season over for the Cavaliers with Preston Bungei ending up with 22 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Jesse Ghee also had 20 points, four boards and four assists, Ibrahima Diallo 18 points and 12 rebounds, Pat Ryan 10 points and two assists, and Lual Diing eight points and six rebounds.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | ELIMINATION FINAL

SANDRINGHAM SABRES 99 (Machar 34, Adnam 30, Bowen 19)

CASEY CAVALIERS 91 (Bungei 22, Ghee 20, Diallo 18)