Rwanda
The finals started in Rwanda as they were not necessarily expected to be quite as dramatic as the semifinals. The Hoops made it close in the second half, but still ended up losing the opener on Thursday. REG took an even bigger lead on Saturday to double their advantage in the series with another win.
Australia
The NBL1 National Finals were contested this weekend in Wayville in South Australia. The four teams that performed the best on the opening day would advance to the semifinals. South conference representative Waverley got the win in the opener even though Chelsea Brook had 30 points for the North conference winners Mackay. East conference champions Bankstown defeated West conference winners Warwick in the next game. Knox won this tournament last year as well as the South conference and started their defense with a win over the local Central conference champions Sturt.
The two teams that did not advance to the semifinals met in the first game on Saturday to close out their tournament. Paige Padroth had 30 points to lead the Sturt Sabres to a win over the Warwick Senators. The Knox Raiders built a lead in the second half to defeat the Mackay Meteorettes, which advanced to the semifinals even though they lost their first game. The Waverley Falcons were looking to make it an all-South conference final, but the Bankstown Bruins won the second semifinal.
The championship game was on Sunday with the Knox Raiders looking to repeat as champions. The Bankstown Bruins were coming from one of the weaker conferences overall, but they had put together a squad with star quality to contend in this format. Shyla Heal was great for them, scoring 30 points as they had the lead into the final quarter, but Knox was able to control that period and win again.
The semifinals of Big V’s top division were played on Saturday and the top two teams in the regular season advanced in emphatic fashion. The McKinnon Cougars defeated the Bulleen Boomers and the Sherbrooke Suns defeated the Pakenham Warriors. In the middle division championship game, the Altona Gators were looking to hand Melbourne University their first loss of the season, taking the lead after the first quarter. The Black Angels were undefeated for a reason though and took the lead for good in the second half. The bottom division also finished play on Saturday and the Surfcoast Chargers took the lead early. It was the second half before the Wallan Panthers really picked it up, completing the comeback and getting 22 rebounds from Emmie Gardner to secure the championship.
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