Saturday night saw the QSL1 SmartSkill Seahawks Women’s and Seahawks Men’s teams win their way through to the QSL1 grand finals, with convincing victories over Southern Districts Spartans and Gold Coast Rollers.
The SmartSkill Seahawks Women saw the return of Krystle McKenzie to the starting line-up, after missing a month through injury, which gave her side a much-needed boost in the must win match up.
The minor premiers started the match off slow against the Spartans, seeing the visiting side jump the heavy favourites 7-2 in the first 3 minutes of the game. This gave Brad Kann’s side a wakeup call to which they responded – going on a 28 – 0 run, to give the home side a convincing lead at the end of the 1st quarter, 30 – 11.
The rest of the match felt like a formality for the undefeated SmartSkill Seahawks, only losing the 3rd quarter 16-14 and coming out winners 80-55.
Veteran Lauren Jansen, although feeling the effects of not having played for a month, had another huge double double, finishing the game 17 points, 13 rebounds and 4 assists. Courtney Willemse made sure the scoreboard pressure continued, having 23 points of her own.
Brad Kann, head coach for the SmartSkill Seahawks Women, was incredibly excited with his team making their way into the grand final.
“It’s always a fantastic feeling making a grand final, and this is no different” said Kann.
“It was great to get back on the court, and for the girls to get a solid run back under their legs heading into the grand final”
“We weren’t extremely polished on the offensive end, only shooting the ball at 34% but kept pressure on their defence by getting to the foul line 36 times”
“Still one more to go and we won’t be lifting our heads until the job is done next week”
The Seahawks Men had cross town rivals, Gold Coast Rollers, as their match up to qualify for the grand final and didn’t the lads look like the break did them some wonders.
The boys started the game off with a bang, heading into the 1st quarter break up 37-22.
The second quarter saw the boys put the pedal to the metal, absolutely dominating their less humble opponents 32-17 in a quarter that saw everything from technical fouls to a huge delay in play, due to a mishap from the Gold Coast bench. This didn’t stop the flow of the home side, heading into the half time break off a buzzer beating 3 from veteran Rhys Martin, and the lead of 69-39.
The second half was very similar to the Women’s game, where the result became more of a formality than a battle, with all 12 players hitting the court and everyone in the positive on the +/- column, running out eventual winners 123-87.
Veterans David Gurney (33 points, 7 rebounds in 26 minutes) and Rhys Martin (26 points, 6 rebounds in 22 minutes) carried the scoring load for the home side, with Amarco Doyle having a phenomal game against his old side, finishing with 14 points and 6 rebounds in a touch over 17 minutes on the floor.
Head Coach for the Seahawks Men, Jordan Mullan, was pumped for his sides victory.
“That’s our largest scoring output of the season, and to be able to do it in a major semi-final is really pleasing”
“We had a great spread of output across our 12 players, with 5 players in double digit scoring and everyone having an opportunity of playing in the semi-final”
“The job isn’t done yet and we haven’t achieved anything yet, so we have to refocus immediately and get ready to become road warriors and beat Brisbane at their house”
The SmartSkill Seahawks Women will play their grand final against Gold Coast Rollers at Runaway Bay this Saturday night at 4:30pm.
Tickets can be purchased at: https://www.seahawksbasketball.com.au/qsl-tickets
Following this game, the Men’s QSL1 Grand Final - where the Seahawks will play the Brisbane Capitals at Auchenflower, will be live streamed at Runaway Bay from 7pm - so feel free to hang around and have a drink and support our Men’s side to victory!
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