NBL1 Season Opener VS North Adelaide Rockets
Men
The Norwood Flames are looking to start their 2025 NBL1 Central campaign off with a win against the North Adelaide Rockets. Returning to the Flames are a couple key contributors including import Trey McBride and Anthony Green. Alongside the returning players is newcomer Jourdan Smith who is looking for a big NBL1 debut.
The ball movement was excellent to start the game for Norwood, unfortunately, this didn’t result in early scores as North Adelaide opened with an early 4-point lead. A monster slam for Anthony Green was a good start to his return to the red and blue. Physicality was the order of the day in the first as both teams took it hard to the rim and were met with strong resistance, the referees were letting a lot of contact go letting the players sort it out. Norwood was behind for most of the quarter but brought it back to 1 at the end of the quarter, 16-17.
The Flames took the lead to start the second quarter on a tip in from Thomas Goodall, who was cleaning glass with his early minutes, grabbing 8 rebounds by halftime. Unfortunately, the Rockets answered with a deep 3 from Bijan Johnson. Both teams were playing very solid defence and forcing each other into contested shots at the rim. The Flames were more adept at playing through the physicality and had some tough finishes around the rim alongside some trips to the free throw line. Still the odd transition looks and free-throws for North Adelaide kept them around and mostly in-front as the game saw a lot of lead changes in the second quarter. The Rockets took hold of the game late in the half going on a small 7-0 run giving them a 6-point lead, 34-28.
The third started defensively like the rest of the game. Both teams taking advantage of the loose whistle to be as physical as they can. Around 2 minutes into the period McBride started the scoring for Norwood which led to a quick stop and score, Cooper Osborne taking it coast-to-coast. Osborne led the way for Norwood offensively and created a spark for Norwood. North Adelaide was struggling offensively as there was great on-ball pressure from Norwood and little-to-no off-ball movement, this gave Norwood an advantage as they were able to rest more on the defensive end. However, the offence was still hard to come by and the game continued to be a physical grind, Norwood trailing at 3-quarter time 42-44.
North Adelaide was aggressive to the rim early om the fourth and found success scoring the first 5 points before Riley Harrap ended the run with a triple. Norwood found their 3-point stroke with Jourdan Smith hitting a triple as well, however, North Adelaide was unrelenting in their attack of the rim and Bijan Johnson caught fire, as they extended their lead. There wasn’t much the Norwood defence could do to slow down North Adelaide as they poured in points down the stretch. Norwood showed some life late, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Rockets’ offensive explosion, the final score 76-65.
