South Spotlight | Blues spoil Force's NBL1 debut

Featured image: @liamboric

The Northern Force didn’t get the start to NBL1 South life they were hoping for as the Frankston Blues flexed their muscles with five players scoring in double-digits for the season-opening 103-89 road win.

The NBL1 South season got underway on Friday night and it was a first game for the Force, formed out of the North West Tasmania Thunder, and they hosted the Blues at Ulverstone Sports and Leisure Centre.

Frankston have come into the new season looking to make up for a season where they fell away in the second half of 2026 to miss finals. They were impressive all evening against the Force to begin their Tasmanian double-header weekend.

The Blues continued to build on their advantage through the night to lead by as much as 18 points on the way to winning by 14 with 14 points from the 16 Northern turnovers along with 19 second chance points from 15 offensive rebounds, and 18 fast break points to 11.

It was a disappointing finish to last season for the Blues with an uncharacteristic finals miss losing seven of their last nine matches, but they started off their new season impressively away from home.

It was some of their usual suspects doing a lot of the good work too including Daniel Trist delivering 17 points, 10 rebounds and two assists with 2/3 three-point shooting. Lucas Barker flirted with a triple-double with seven points, nine assists, six rebounds and three steals.

Austin Shelley is a new face with the Blues and top-scored with 18 points, three assists, three steals and two rebounds while Tom Garrett put up 14 points and three assists with 3/6 three-point shooting.

Corey Hastings also knocked down 3/5 from long-range for 14 points with Vincent Monaghan contributing nine points and five rebounds, and Jack Stanwix six points and four assists.

Despite the loss first up, it was an encouraging showing from the Force on their home floor under the coaching of Jayden Smith.

Logan Gibson finished with 24 points with nine rebounds and three assists on 7/11 shooting from the floor and 10/12 from the free-throw line.

Vincent DeAngelo also produced 17 points, six rebounds and six assists with former Brisbane Bullets NBL development player Kye Savage ending up with 15 points, eight assists and four rebounds with 3/9 three-point shooting.

Aaron Ridley III had 16 points with 11 of those in the first half and ended up shooting 4/7 from behind the three-point line.

The Force were looking to make a lively start to their life in the NBL1 South and they did have a hot shooting start in the first quarter putting up 4/8 from downtown and going 58 per cent from the field with Logan Gibson and Aaron Ridley III combining for 13 points.

The only problem was Frankston found their groove too with 5/7 three-point shooting and going 58 per cent overall with Dibaji Walker and Lucas Barker combining for 14 points with the visitors leading 28-27 by quarter-time.

The Blues kept that pace going in the second quarter putting up another 28 points even if their three ball dried up going 2/8 from downtown for the period.

Daniel Trist took charge, though, and had 12 points to half-time for Frankston and they would end up leading 56-45 by the half-time break with the Force managing just the 18 points in the second term with their shooting dropping just below the 50 per cent.

Both teams continued to be impressive offensively in the third quarter with another 25 points to 24 in favour of Frankston with the Blues' advantage getting out to as much as 18.

They remained in control throughout the fourth quarter too and secured the first up 14-point victory on the road to start the new season as they attempt to return to finals action in 2026.

Friday night's other NBL1 South men's fixture saw the Hobart Chargers beat the Nunawading Spectres 87-85 in a thriller at Hutchins School.

NBL SOUTH 2026 SEASON | ROUND 1

NORTHERN FORCE 89 (Gibson 24, DeAngelo 17, Ridley III 16)

FRANKSTON BLUES 103 (Shelley 18, Trist 17, Garrett 14, Hastings 14)