South Finals | Raiders beat Sabres in a classic

Featured image: Darren Keane - @darrenkeanephoto

The defending champion Knox Raiders have advanced to the NBL1 South Grand Final in the most dramatic of circumstances with Funda Nakkasoglu game tying basket waved away for the Sandringham Sabres at the buzzer.

It was intense and a high-quality affair as you are likely to see and it was only fitting that Sunday's preliminary final at the State Basketball Centre went right down to the wire with a Grand Final spot on the line.

There were big plays galore in the final minute with Knox going into it with a four-point lead before Klara Wischer was fouled when taking a three-pointer for Sandringham. She made the shot and then completed the four-point play to tie scores up.

Haliegh Reinoehl then hit a big shot to return Knox to the lead before young gun Madi Ryan responded for Sandringham, and that was just the start of the drama.

Knox ran down most of the clock and Paige Bradley hit the mid-range jumper with 4.6 seconds to go and the Raiders were up 80-78.

That's where the score would stay, but only just. Without a timeout left, the Sabres had to take the ball the length of the floor and Wischer took it up and found Nakkasoglu all alone under the basket.

She made the shot but the clock expired before the ball left her hands and that meant the score was waved away for Knox to win by two and make it 15 straight wins to qualify for Saturday night's Grand Final in an attempt to make it back-to-back championships.

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After winning the NBL1 South and NBL1 National championships last year, Knox's 2026 season has been just as dominant ending up a game clear on top at 18-4 and making it 14 straight wins by beating the Melbourne Tigers by 44 points last Saturday night.

Sandringham had a rollercoaster season purely based on player availability to go on a 10-game winning run midway through but then lost four of five coming into the finals.

But they got key players back and beat both the Casey Cavaliers and Keilor Thunder to set up the preliminary final clash with Knox.

It was a narrow 20-19 lead for the Raiders by quarter-time before the Sabres took over in the second frame with 27 points to 12 to go into the half-time break leading 46-32.

Madi Ryan was up to 17 points for Sandringham and Isis Lopes 15 on the back of shooting 15/30 from the field to the 13/42 from the Raiders and going a perfect 12/12 at the foul line to 5/7.

But Knox had got up 12 extra shot attempts on the back of 12 offensive rebounds with Alicia Froling having 15 points and 10 rebounds by half-time.

The Raiders did hit back in the third quarter with 21 points to 14 but the Sabres were still on top 60-53 by three quarter-time.

After Ryan hit another three-pointer for Sandringham to put them six points up with six minutes to play, Knox responded with the next 11 points to turn that six-point deficit into a five-point lead of their own on the back of a triple that completed the run by Leah Santomaggio.

Sandringham responded with the next four points from Steph Reid and then after a couple of big buckets to Paige Bradley, Knox were leading by four heading into that remarkable final minute.

In the end, the Raiders secured the two-point win to advance to the Grand Final to attempt to win back-to-back championships for the first time since 2012-13 when they won two straight SEABL conferences titles.

Knox got up an extra 17 shots for the game with 17 offensive rebounds to five to make it 15 straight wins going into the Grand Final with Paige Bradley producing 20 points, 10 assists, three steals and two rebounds.

Alicia Froling also had 19 points, 13 rebounds, three steals and two assists, Haliegh Reinoehl 13 points and four boards, Agnes Emma-Nnopu nine points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocks, and Leah Santomaggio eight points, four rebounds and two assists.

Sandringham shot the ball better with 46 per cent from the field along with 8/21 from the outside and 18/20 at the foul line with Madi Ryan finishing with 22 points, eight rebounds, four steals, two assists and two blocked shots.

Isis Lopes added 20 points, four rebounds and three assists, Steph Reid 15 points, 10 boards and six assists, and Lucy Cochrane 10 points, four rebounds, three blocks and two assists.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | PRELIMINARY FINAL

KNOX RAIDERS 80 (Bradley 20, Froling 19, Reinoehl 13)

SANDRINGHAM SABRES 78 (Ryan 22, Lopes 20, Reid 15)