South Spotlight | Utti the hero as Falcons win in OT

Featured image: Cam Brown | @cambrownvisuals

Maddi Utti hit a huge three to get the Waverley Falcons to overtime for the second time this NBL1 South weekend before Keilor Thunder then lost Maddy Rocci to a nasty looking injury and the home team prevailed 85-82 following that.

The Falcons were back home at Waverley Basketball Centre coming off an overtime loss the night before to the Knox Raiders while the Thunder arrived on a five-game winning run including the previous night at home to the Eltham Wildcats.

Waverley and Keilor also have strong recent history including the 2024 Grand Final won by the Falcons and also it was a similar result in last year's playoffs just to add to the motivation of both teams on Sunday.

The game ended up going to overtime after Utti hit a huge three with 4.6 seconds to go to tie scores up and then after Rocci hit a big three early in the extra period, she went down with what looked to be an ankle injury.

Waverley were able to make the most of it from there and secured the three-point victory to improve to a 10-6 record having split their two overtime games in Round 11 while Keilor are now 12-6.

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By the end of the 45 minutes, precious little separated the two teams with Keilor shooting slightly better at 41 per cent to 39 while they went 9/20 from three to 9/24, and 21/30 at the foul line to 16/24 so there wasn’t much in how they shot between them.

The difference came with Waverley winning the possession battle taking 14 more shots in the finish on the back of having 14 offensive rebounds to 10, and forcing the Thunder into 20 turnovers and having only 16 themselves.

Waverley ended up splitting two overtime games this weekend by going 1-1 with Maddi Utti hitting that huge three to get the game to overtime and ending up with 21 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals with 4/6 three-point shooting.

Hannah Rapp also had 20 points, four assists, three rebounds and two steals for the Falcons, Katelyn Shumate 15 points, 10 boards, four assists and four steals, Sophia Locandro 14 points and eight rebounds, and Tayla Dalton 11 points, five assists, four boards and three steals.

Before hurting her ankle early in overtime, Rocci already had 17 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and four steals for Keilor in another standout performance.

Lara McSpadden had a big afternoon with 25 points and 10 rebounds with Issie Bourne adding 16 points, eight boards and four assists, and Tess Heal 12 points, five rebounds and four assists.

The two teams have built quite the rivalry including finals battles in each of the past two seasons and again are looking to put themselves in the title hunt again making Sunday's clash all the more significant.

Both were coming off playing Saturday night as well and Keilor did start well win an early eight-point lead but Waverley worked back from there and were leading 22-21 by quarter-time.

The Thunder then had 21 points to 19 in the second frame to be narrowly leading 42-41 at the half on the back of Lara McSpadden's 14 points with them shooting 15/33 opposed to the 15/43 from the Falcons with Maddi Utti having 13 points for the home team.

No more than six points then separated the two teams the rest of the way and that advantage was the way of Keilor in the fourth quarter after a pair of free throws to Maddy Rocci with just over three minutes on the clock.

Waverley responded with the next eight points capped off with a triple from Sophia Locandro to put them back on top before Rocci and Maddi Utti traded three balls to have scores all level with 4.6 seconds on the clock.

That's where scores stayed as time expired and then Keilor were up three after a triple from Rocci early in overtime but then on the next possession she went down with what appeared a nasty looking ankle injury.

Waverley were able to take advantage with Tayla Dalton landing a three-pointer to tie scores up before Hannah Rapp put them in front and the Falcons were able to secure the three-point overtime win from there.

Waverley will be on the road now on Saturday night against the Ballarat Miners while Keilor will look to hit back and have their fingers crossed over the health of Maddy Rocci when they host the Ringwood Hawks also on Saturday.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | ROUND 11

WAVERLEY FALCONS 85 (Utti 21, Rapp 20, Shumate 15)

KEILOR THUNDER 82 (McSpadden 25, Rocci 17, Bourne 16)