NBL1 South Recap | Sunday Men's Round 9

Round 9 of the NBL1 South season wrapped up on Sunday with wins for the Nunawading Spectres, Eltham Wildcats and Hobart Chargers.

Round 9 in the NBL1 South Men's competition began back on Friday night with just the one fixture which saw DJ Vasiljevic put up 34 points as the Diamond Valley Eagles beat the Nunawading Spectres 89-64.

Round 9 continued on Saturday evening with the Geelong Supercats defeating the North West Tasmania Thunder 86-82, the Sandringham Sabres beating the Waverley Falcons 102-94 and the Ringwood Hawks prevailing 85-75 over the Ballarat Miners.

The Kilsyth Cobras also beat the Melbourne Tigers 82-78 while the Dandenong Rangers beat the Knox Raiders 97-90. Bendigo Braves beat the Eltham Wildcats 82-62 and Harry Froling delivered 43 points in the Hobart Chargers' 92-82 victory against the Mount Gambier Pioneers.

That led into the Sunday match ups beginning with the Nunawading Spectres winning at home 88-71 against the North West Tasmania Thunder.

CJ Asuncion-Byrd starred in the win for Nunawading with 27 points while Sean Macdonald had 22 for the Thunder.

The Eltham Wildcats bounced back from their loss the night before to beat the Casey Cavaliers 82-63 on the road.

Mitch Dance starred in the victory for Eltham with 33 points while Davo Hickey had some spectacular moments on his way to 15 points for the Cavs.

Then lastly on Sunday the Hobart Chargers kept their momentum going away from home beating Keilor Thunder 89-61.

Ole Angerstein was a powerful presence for the Chargers in the win finishing with 21 points with Jacob Lampkin top-scoring for Keilor with 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

NBL1 SOUTH – 2022 MEN'S SEASON
ROUND 9 – SUNDAY

NUNAWADING SPECTRES 88 defeated NORTH WEST TASMANIA THUNDER 71

The Nunawading Spectres hit back from losing on Friday night to beat the North West Tasmania Thunder by 17 points on Sunday afternoon.

Coming off losing to the Diamond Valley Eagles on Friday, the Spectres were back home at Nunawading Basketball Centre on Sunday to host a North West team who had lost narrowly the previous evening to the Geelong Supercats.

Nunawading started strongly to lead 23-17 by quarter-time and then they dominated the second quarter going on a run of scoring 13 straight points to open up a 20-point advantage.

However, North West stayed in touch by hitting back with their own 9-0 scoring run to limit the Spectres to a 45-37 half-time edge.

Nunawading pulled away once more in the third quarter with another 7-0 run to be up 17, that grew to 19 in the fourth period and they would end up winning 88-71 on their home court.

The victory improves the Spectres to a 6-7 record on the season after Round 9 while the Thunder return home at 5-7.

Nunawading dominated the glass pulling down 45 rebounds to 29 from North West while shooting a standout 53.5 per cent from the floor opposed to 36.6 per cent from the Thunder.

CJ Ascuncion-Byrd not only provided some spectacular highlights in the win for Nunawading, but he delivered a performance full of substance too with 27 points, four rebounds and three assists.

Dain Swetalla added 21 points and eight rebounds for the Spectres, Jack Gandolfo 14 points with four three-pointers, Jordan Geer 12 points and five assists, and Callum Barker seven points, six rebounds and two assists.

It was a North West team featuring three members of the Tasmania JackJumpers Grand Final NBL team and Sean Macdonald led the charge with 22 points and five assists.

Fabijan Krslovic also had 14 points, 11 rebounds, five steals and three assists while Matt Kenyon had a limited impact with two points, four rebounds, three steals and two assists.

Ben Woolley did have 16 points while hitting three triples as well for the Thunder.

CASEY CAVALIERS 63 lost to ELTHAM WILDCATS 82

The Eltham Wildcats proved too strong for the Casey Cavaliers on Sunday afternoon winning by 19 points in a tremendous bounce back performance.

The Wildcats lost to the Bendigo Braves on Saturday night by 20 points leading into Sunday's clash at Casey Stadium against a Cavaliers team playing their only game of the weekend.

Eltham were motivated to hit back from the previous evening and by quarter-time had already established a 12-point lead against the Cavs.

The Wildcats extended the lead further to be up 18 early in the second term but Casey did hit back with some spectacular plays above the rim at either end from Davo Hickey helping the home team stay within eight points by half-time.

However, it didn’t take long for Eltham to pull away once more going on another 8-0 run in the third quarter to help the lead grow back out to 21 points.

From there, the Wildcats consolidated their advantage to lead by as much as 25 and to end up winning 82-63 away from home.

The victory sees Eltham split their road weekend to sit now at 2-10 on the season while Casey is 3-9.

Mitch Dance delivered a standout performance for Eltham finishing the afternoon with 33 points, four rebounds and three assists on 13/21 shooting form the field even if he went just 5/12 at the foul line.

Sam Short added 17 points, seven rebounds and four steals, Josh Sykes 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Ovie Magbegor seven points and 12 boards.

Davo Hickey picked the pockets of unsuspecting Eltham guards a couple of times for some big dunks and while he was only credited with one block, his defence above the rim deserved more credit than that as he produced 15 points, five rebounds and four steals for Casey.

Jock Perry added 13 points for the Cavaliers, Jordan Bell 10 points and eight rebounds, and Geremy McKay seven points.

KEILOR THUNDER 61 lost to HOBART CHARGERS 89

Even without needing more heroics from Harry Froling, the Hobart Chargers continued their hot form on Sunday away from home against the Keilor Thunder.

The Chargers were fresh off beating the Mount Gambier Pioneers at The Ice House on Saturday night with Froling delivering 43 points as they headed to Keilor Stadium on Sunday afternoon to take on a Thunder team playing their only game of Round 9.

It didn’t take long for Hobart to work their way on top with them leading by nine points at quarter-time and then stretching that advantage with another 24 points to 17 in the second period to go into half-time up 48-32.

It was more of the same in the second half with Hobart putting up 18 points to 10 in the third quarter, and 23 to 19 in the fourth to end up winning 89-61.

The victory improves the Chargers to a 9-3 record on the season for them to be within touch of the 10-3 Pioneers while the Thunder are now 2-10 following the loss on their home floor.

It was a commanding performance all round from Hobart with them collecting 54 rebounds to 39 while shooting 48.5 per cent from the floor opposed to 32.1.

Harry Froling might have been brilliant the night before with his 43 points, but the Brisbane Bullets big man was able to let his teammates do the heavy lifting on Sunday as he played just the 12 and-a-half minutes for seven points and five rebounds.

It was Ole Angerstein who delivered the statement performance with his presence inside and powerful finishing at one end, and defensive prowess above the rim up the other superb. He finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and while only credited with two blocks, that doesn’t quite sum up his influence.

Jarred Bairstow added 14 points and 12 rebounds for Hobart, AJ Harris 14 points, eight assists and five rebounds, Jack Stanwix 12 points and three assists, and Jacob Richards 10 points and eight boards.

Jacob Lampkin top-scored for Keilor with 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists on 4/6 shooting from beyond the three-point line.