South Spotlight | Eagles dominate on King's Birthday

Featured image: Cam Brown | @cambrownvisuals

The Diamond Valley Eagles breathed some life back into their NBL1 South prospects by opening up a 29-point lead on King's Birthday away to the Waverley Falcons before securing the 100-85 victory.

It was the lone NBL1 South fixture on the evening of King's Birthday to wrap up the long weekend at Waverley Basketball Stadium with the Falcons looking to find their groove with some new faces up against an Eagles team trying to keep their season alive.

Diamond Valley took charge from the outset and while Mirko Djeric didn’t necessarily score a lot even though he hit a late dagger three-pointer, but he controlled the contest as the Eagles opened up a 26-point advantage in the second quarter.

The Eagles were then still up by that 26-point margin by half-time and while Waverley did win the second half, they could never quite get close enough to threaten even having added Reaudale Williams and Mawot Mag.

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Diamond Valley ended up scoring the 15-point victory to improve to a 4-11 record while Waverley have now lost three in-a-row to slip to a 5-8 record.

The Eagles scored the win on the back of shooting 54 per cent from the field to 45 for the game while knocking down 14/29 from beyond the arc to 6/20, and also 14/25 at the foul line to 11/16.

Former NBL guard Mirko Djeric led Diamond Valley well as the point guard to end up with six points, eight assists, seven rebounds and three steals even on just taking five field goal attempts for the night.

Noah Todd also ended up with 17 points, two rebounds and two assists on 3/6 three-point shooting, Daniel Poelsma 14 points on 4/6 shooting from downtown, Mitch Blackburn 13 points, five rebounds and two assists, and Archie Woodhill 12 points including eight of those in the first quarter.

Xavier Bledson added 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists, Ryley Haywood nine points, nine boards and three assists, Aleksandar Bandilovski nine points, six assists and five rebounds, and former NBL forward Manny Malou seven points and four boards on 3/4 shooting.

It was a tough night at home for Waverley but the longer it went the signs were more encouraging for new guard Reaudale Williams who ended up with 18 points, four rebounds and four assists on 8/12 field goal shooting.

Mawot Mag is fresh off playing with the Cairns Taipans in NBL26 and ended up with 15 points, four rebounds, four steals and two assists for the Falcons with Matthew McCarthy putting up 16 points, nine boards and two assists.

Gabe Hadley also had 12 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals with Malik Meunier adding nine points, four boards, four assists, two steals and two blocked shots.

Both teams came into the King's Birthday contest needing a win to close in on a top 10 spot in the NBL1 South and it was Diamond Valley who started the better to be leading 23-15 by quarter-time.

Archie Woodhill had eight of those points for the Eagles while they were shooting 47 per cent from the field to just 32 from the Falcons including six free-throw attempts to two, and forcing the home team into three turnovers.

It was then an even more dominant second quarter from Diamond Valley as they put up 32 points on 12/20 field goal shooting along with 4/6 from downtown and 4/5 at the foul line while having only one more turnovers.

Then it was a horror quarter for Waverley with just the 14 points on 6/17 shooting while having another four turnovers.

That saw the Eagles on top 55-29 at the break and as a result Waverley coach Elias Palioyiannis kept his players in the locker room for almost the entire half-time break.

He was looking for an immediate response coming out to the second half and he did get it and the Falcons ended up scoring 30 points in the third quarter on 12/20 shooting but still at three quarter-time it was Diamond Valley on top 76-59.

Waverley turned up the defensive pressure with some full-court defence that was paying off to pressure the Eagles and it helped get them back within 15 until Mirko Djeric hit a clutch three with just over minutes to go for Diamond Valley.

That's when the frustrations for the Falcons spilled over and a couple of tech fouls denied them further a chance to eat into the deficit and Diamond Valley had all the answers in the end on the way to the 15-point victory.

Both teams are back in action on Saturday night with Waverley remaining at home to host the Nunawading Spectres while Diamond Valley are on the road to the Dandenong Rangers.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | HERITAGE ROUND

WAVERLEY FALCONS 85 (Williams 18, McCarthy 16, Mag 15)

DIAMOND VALLEY EAGLES 100 (Todd 17, Poelsma 14, Blackburn 13)