NBL1 North Recap | Round 9 Friday

The North Gold Coast Seahawks scored a pair of Friday night NBL1 North wins away to the Red City Roar despite an impressive showing from Donica Cosby for the home team before Josh Duach turned it on for the winners in the men's clash.

The women's clash on Friday night to open Round 9 saw the North Gold Coast Seahawks beat the Red City Roar 88-78 before the Seahawks also won the men's encounter 113-77.

WOMEN

Seahawks overpower improved Red City late

Some reinforcements arrived for the Red City Roar and they threw everything at that elusive first win of the 2023 NBL1 North season, but it wasn’t quite to be with the North Gold Coast Seahawks scoring the 88-78 Friday night road win.

The Roar were playing their first game in two weeks and had welcomed Angela Beadle into the line-up for the first time and it was the first real chance for new import Donica Cosby to show what she can do after a brief appearance two weeks ago against the Spartans.

The pair helped to make an immediate difference and both Red City and the Seahawks turned on a scintillating first half of basketball. They combined to score 57 points in the first quarter with North Gold Coast leading 30-27 by quarter-time.

It was another 46 points combined in the second period with the Seahawks slightly extending their lead to 54-49 by the main break.

The Roar were throwing everything at that first win and Cosby was turning it on for her new team, but by the fourth quarter the Seahawks pulled away.

Red City were leading 70-69 with six and-a-half minutes to play but from that point it was all North Gold Coast as they outscored the Roar 19 points to eight the rest of the way to secure the eventual 10-point victory.

The result improves the Seahawks to a 4-5 record on the season while the Roar are now 0-9 despite the more encouraging signs.

Despite leaving the game late with a leg injury scare, Bride Kennedy-Hopoate was instrumental in the victory for the Seahawks finishing with 24 points, seven rebounds and two assists.

Alexa Held added 22 points, eight assists, four rebounds and two steals, and Emma Gandini 14 points, six boards and three steals on the back of knocking down 4/6 from three-point territory.

Bionca Dunham also had 10 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals for North Gold Coast, and Erin Riley 10 points, five steals, three rebounds and three assists.

Donica Cosby sent a message as to what sort of an impact she'll be able to have the rest of the season for Red City by delivering 30 points, three assists, three blocks, two steals and two rebounds in her first full appearance.

Lilly Rotunno added 15 points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals, Jaylen Cooper 11 points, four boards and two steals, and Angela Beadle eight points, two rebounds and two assists in her first appearance after playing with the Gold Coast Rollers in 2022.

What vision by Bride Kennedy-Hopoate! ?

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MEN

Duach turns it on as Seahawks overpower Roar 

The shorthanded Red City Roar did their best to stick with North Gold Coast for three quarters on Friday night, but they ran out of gas and the Seahawks piled on 40 points in the fourth quarter to win 113-77.

The job was ahead of the Roar not only as they came into the clash at Paul Bancroft Centre on a four-game losing streak, but given they were without a host of key players too.

Red City was missing Nelson Larkins, Javaan Mumtaz and Kane Bishop which was always going to make it a challenge up against a Seahawks team looking to start building some momentum this NBL1 North season.

The Roar were doing well to keep pace with the Seahawks only trailing by two points at quarter-time, eight at half-time and then 14 at three quarter-time.

However, North Gold Coast dominated the fourth quarter with Red City also not having Robert McCowan and Mitch Poulain out there for most of it either. The Seahawks put up 40 points to 18 and ended up winning by 36 points.

The Seahawks improve to a 5-4 record with consecutive wins as a result while the Roar are now 2-7 having lost five in-a-row ahead of playing the on-fire defending champion Gold Coast Rollers on Saturday.

Josh Duach had a ???? scoring night in North Gold Coast's win, posting:

3??4?? points
6?? three pointers made

...and 5?? assists for good measure!

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Josh Duach produced a brilliant performance the longer the game went for North Gold Coast to end up with 34 points, five assists and three rebounds on 12/18 shooting from the field, 6/10 from three-point land and 4/4 at the foul line.

Kody Stattmann added 21 points and five rebounds for the Seahawks, Majok Majok 20 points, 16 rebounds, two assists and two blocks, and Aiden Krause 12 points and seven boards.

Biwali Bayles also delivered eight points and eight assists fresh off signing with the Illawarra Hawks as an NBL development player during the week.

Jaylen Key stepped up impressively for Red City to finish with 27 points, seven rebounds and three assists with Robert McCowan scoring 10 points, and Josh Brown eight points, five rebounds and four assists.

Jarrod Molnar added eight points and three rebounds, Michael Afrakoff eight points, four assists and three rebounds, and Alec Godinet seven points and four boards. 

Kody Stattmann is out here firing from ???? ?

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