South Spotlight | Raiders dominate as Spectres go cold

Featured image: Ian Knight Photography

The Nunawading Spectres only managed 20 points in the first 20 minutes with the Knox Raiders handing them a first loss of the NBL1 South season with Alicia Froling a dominant presence as the reigning champs prevailed 78-55.

The Raiders were back home at the State Basketball Centre having split their opening four matches of the season on the back of last year's triumph not only to win the NBL1 South championship but also to prevail at the National Finals.

They hosted a Spectres team who had been in hot form over their first four matches, but the Raiders shut them down and limited them to six points in the second quarter and 20 points for the half where they were shooting just 21 per cent from the field and 2/18 from deep.

Nunawading did manage 35 points in the second half but Knox put up another 48 including 32 in the third quarter on the way to the dominant 23-point home win.

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Alicia Froling produced a monster performance in the win for the Raiders with 23 points, 17 rebounds, two assists and two blocks with 8/12 shooting from the field and 7/8 at the foul line while being +25 in her 32 minutes.

Paige Bradley added 13 points, six rebounds and five assists, Taylah Simmons 11 points and five boards, Haliegh Reinoehl nine points, eight rebounds and two assists, Paige Burrows eight points, four boards and four assists, and Shaneice Swain seven points and six assists.

Kylee Blacksten put up 27 points with four rebounds and three assists with 11/13 free-throw shooting, but the rest of the Spectres team only scored 28 points on 10/45 shooting with 4/27 from downtown.

Riley Lupfer had a scoreless first half and ended up with eight points on 3/16 shooting with Kate Tanner contributing six points and seven rebounds on 2/8.

Alicia Froling helped to set the tone in the first quarter for Knox with her seven points and five rebounds to help the defending champs to the 17-14 lead by the end of one.

Kylee Blacksten had eight points for Nunawading to keep them in touch while both teams struggled shooting going an identical 5/16 from the field but Knox did get to the foul line seven times to three.

Nunawading then managed just the six points in all of the second quarter on 2/18 shooting from the field with 0/9 from behind the arc to have just 20 points to half-time with 11 of those courtesy of Blacksten.

The Raiders weren’t finding much offensive groove themselves and only managed 13 points on 5/19 shooting and they were only going at 29 per cent from the field at the half.

But that was enough to be leading 30-20 with Froling already having a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds while they had pulled down 35 rebounds to 19 including 10 at the offensive end to four.

Nunawading decided to attack the basket more in the third quarter and were rewarded by getting to the foul line 12 times where they knocked down 11 of them.

The Spectres scored 21 points in the third quarter as a result after having just 20 to the half, the only problem was the Raiders put up 32 on 14/18 shooting themselves with 4/7 from downtown to push their lead out to 21 by three quarter-time.

From there Knox secured the 23-point win as their championship defence builds some moments having handed the Spectres a first loss of 2026.

The Raiders will now be away to the Sandringham Sabres on Anzac Day while the Spectres will quickly look to shake off the first loss of the season at home to Keilor Thunder now on Sunday.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | ROUND 3

KNOX RAIDERS 78 (Froling 23, Bradley 13, Simmons 11)

NUNAWADING SPECTRES 55 (Blacksten 27, Lupfer 8, Schmidtke 6, Tanner 6)