South Spotlight | Tigers overcome shorthanded Sabres

Featured image: Ian Knight Photography

Given the players the Sandringham Sabres were missing, the Melbourne Tigers were expected to take care of business in the NBL1 South Grand Final rematch and they did win 81-66 on Thursday but not without a third quarter scare.

It was a Grand Final rematch from last year's decider where Sandringham spoiled the fairytale run of the Tigers to claim the championship, but it was a Sabres team on Thursday night at Southern Basketball Stadium without a host of key players.

Current Melbourne United player Malith Machar, former NBL veteran big man Dane Pineau and short-term NZ NBL signing Kyle Adnam all weren’t there for the Sabres, but still the home team fired back from a 16-point deficit to be just three down at three quarter-time.

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The Tigers were able to take control once more in the fourth quarter for the 15-point win after scoring the opening eight points and improve to 3-1 as they try to back up last year's Grand Final appearance.

Reigning MVP Tom Wilson ended up delivering 19 points, six rebounds and two assists in the win for the Tigers even while shooting just the 6/18 from the field.

One new face for the Melbourne team of 2026 is George Blagojevic and he finished with 17 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and two steals while Mason Gaze shook off a bit of an injury scare for 13 points, five rebounds and two assists.

Jack Purchase also had 12 points, five rebounds and three assists, and another 2026 recruit Josh Sykes 12 points and eight boards.

Melbourne United's Kyle Bowen finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and two steals for Sandringham while playing 36 minutes with Kaylan Kitto ending up with 16 points and six boards.

CJ Asuncion-Byrd also had nine points and two rebounds, Elliott Brown eight points, five boards and three assists, and Sammy Cartwright six points and 10 rebounds.

It was always a big task for Sandringham given the players they had missing but they kept things close in the first quarter of the Grand Final rematch even with Melbourne leading 21-17 by quarter-time.

That lead for the Tigers was on the back of seven points each from George Blagojevic and Tom Wilson while they didn’t have a turnover and forced the Sabres into four of them that they scored six of their points from.

The Tigers then had another 24 points to 21 in the second period and along the way did lead by as much as 12 and were up 10 heading into the half-time break.

Wilson had another seven points in that second frame while Mason Gaze had 11 to his name by the break on 2/3 three-point shooting but the Sabres stayed in touch with a combined 18 points from Kaylan Kitto and Kyle Bowen.

Sandringham then showed impressive fight in the third period and after going down by 16, the reigning champs fired back and by three quarter-time they had outscored the Tigers 20 points to 13 in the term to cut the deficit to three.

Melbourne only managed to shoot 5/18 in the quarter with the Sabres having some momentum going into three quarter-time, but the Tigers were able to respond with the opening four points in less than a minute of the fourth leading to a lightning quick timeout from the coaching duo of Dave Barlow and Nathan Crosswell.

The Tigers turned that into an 8-0 run to start the final term and set up the eventual 15-point victory to get one back on the Sabres in a sense for last year's Grand Final.

Sandringham back up now on the road to Keilor Thunder on Saturday night with the Tigers now not playing again until Anzac Day when they are on the road to the Ringwood Hawks.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | ROUND 3

SANDRINGHAM SABRES 66 (Bowen 17, Kitto 16, Asuncion-Byrd 9)

MELBOURNE TIGERS 81 (Wilson 19, Blagojevic 17, Gaze 13)