NBL1 Round 3 vs West Adelaide Bearcats
Men
The third round of the 2025 NBL1 season sees the Norwood Flames (0 – 2) taking on the West Adelaide Bearcats (1 – 1). The Flames haven’t had an ideal start to the season as they’ve struggled to find consistency leading to two unfortunate losses, they are looking to snag their first win of the season against a strong West Adelaide side. For the Bearcats they have also had a slower start than expected, splitting their first two games, they are looking for their splash off-season signings to make a big impact going forward.
A good early look for Trey McBride opened the scoring with a three as he looked to be very aggressive from tip-off scoring the first 8 points of the game, including 2 triples. The Bearcats answered with a 5-point run of their own, taking advantage of o-boards and transition. McBride ended the Bearcats run as he converted on a nice post-spin and draining another triple a couple of possessions later giving him 13 for the quarter. Despite West Adelaide being good on the boards early the Norwood defence created a lot of deflections and allowed Norwood to get out and run. A monster alley-oop with Anthony Green slamming it home gave Norwood an 11-point advantage, before a quick triple from West Adelaide brought the game back to 8. Norwood was strong for much of the first quarter, leading by as much as 12, but they slipped defensively towards the end of the quarter. West took advantage and brought the game back to 4-points, 22 – 18 at the break.
Anthony Green opened the second quarter with an and-1 off an inbound play, slipping the screen perfectly as his defender helped on the shooter. The highlight play didn’t ignite the Flames offence as the Bearcats defence was solid, forcing some long possessions from Norwood. Eventually, the Flames broke the defence of the Bearcats, but West answered a two with a three as they slowly clawed themselves back into the game. Norwood was still playing impressive defence but without consistent scoring on the other end West Adelaide was able to string together some runs over longer periods of the quarter. This eventually led to West Adelaide diminishing Norwood’s lead to just 1. Despite West Adelaide bringing the game back to almost even Norwood kept their energy high on defence eventually leading to a small 4-point run. West Adelaide answered this run, using their length to generate stops and transition opportunities. The defensively focused half comes to a close, 37 – 36.
The start of the second started similar to the first with Trey McBride draining a triple to open the scoring but this time West answered with a three of their own. Another triple from West Adelaide tied up the game but Anthony Green’s massive slam tried to keep Norwood ahead. Norwood’s offence was still inconsistent but so was the Bearcats to start, both teams continuing the defensive theme of the game. Halfway through the quarter, the offence started flowing for the Bearcats as they turned their stops into scores whilst continuing to grab o-boards extending their possessions. The offensive disparity was apparent for the remainder of the quarter as the Bearcats went on a 20-2 run in the last 4-minutes of the quarter, Darcy McNamara the only player for the Flames finding the bottom of the net. This lapse on both ends was costly for the Flames as they went into the final period now trailing, 49 – 64.
The Flames came out of 3-quarter time with a burst of energy, the lapse at the end of the third quarter seeming far behind them. They went back to their defence from the first half, keeping West Adelaide mostly out of the paint and focusing on their rotations. These rotations led to Norwood getting out in transition more and starting to find some offence. Unfortunately, West Adelaide had too much momentum from the third quarter, so it wasn’t easy for Norwood to string together stops and then score against the length and athleticism of West. The quarter was mostly a stalemate, neither team going on runs larger than 6 points, with both teams just locking in defensively. The Bearcats had more offensive firepower and therefore their lead grew slightly, the game ending, 66 – 83.
