Golden Coast: Rollers' crazy run to NBL1 national title

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The Gold Coast Rollers have completed one of the most improbable runs to an NBL1 National Championship after taking down star-studded home side the Forestville Eagles 70-67 in an overtime championship game thriller to win the title.

Playing with just seven players for the tournament and missing three NBL players, including Jensen Bradtke as well as Preston LeGassick and Jimmy Whitt, the Rollers could not be denied against an Eagles side full of former national league talents.

The trio of Brodie McGregor, Boston Mazlin and Ashley McGrath proved too much for the Eagles in the end, combining for 56 points while their teammates played their role to perfection as the Rollers became the first NBL1 North team to win a national championship in the five years of the event.

Former NBL big man Daniel Johnson looked to have given the Eagles all the momentum after a tough and-one finish to give Forestville the lead with just two minutes remaining but the Rollers answered back, like they had all game, to tie the game up with a fastbreak layup to McGrath.

Neither could land the final blow in the closing 90 seconds but McGrath had an open three with just seconds left which rimmed out to send the game to overtime.

McGrath, who's just a teenager, hit several crucial baskets in the extra period – including a three and a turnaround fadeaway jumpshot – to keep the Rollers in the lead following two tough baskets from Forestville's Alex Starling.

Eagles point guard Adam Doyle missed a contested layup in the dying stages before Mazlin connected on two clutch free-throws to hand Gold Coast the national title.

"Feels really good, I'm just super proud of our community back on the Gold Coast, it's always about the people in community sport," Rollers coach Anthony Petrie said.

"Great people, great people do great things for each other.

"I know I say it all the time, everyone will laugh talking about Tenterfield, but I grew up in a community where people do things for other people... honestly I've had my time but I'm just happy I can give back in a little way that people can experience the things I was lucky enough to experience."

McGregor, who just signed a two-year development player deal with the Illawarra Hawks, said sticking together through adversity was what his team does.

"We're really tight, a lot of us have grown up playing together... we're together as a group always," McGregor said post game.

‍MATCH REPORT

Gold Coast won the NBL1 North championship with Jensen Bradtke, Jimmy Whitt and Preston Le Gassick as the centre of everything they did, and the three of them combined for 68.5 points, 20.1 rebounds and 16.1 assists a game across 2026. All three are back with their NBL clubs, at Melbourne United, the Perth Wildcats and the New Zealand Breakers, so Anthony Petrie's side arrived in Adelaide with seven available bodies, three of them teenagers, and beat the home team on its own floor.

They had also lost to that home team on the buzzer on Friday night.

Game Snapshot

• Quarter scores: Forestville 17–18, 22–21, 14–10, 10–14, OT 4–7
• Final: Gold Coast 70, Forestville 67
• Gold Coast assists: 21 │ Forestville assists: 12
• Gold Coast free-throw shooting: 13-of-16 (81.25%)

Forestville were playing at the State Basketball Centre in Wayville, which is their regular home floor, with Daniel Johnson, Adam Doyle, Alex Starling and Greg Mays between them carrying most of the experience in the building, and with a chance to become the first NBL1 Central club to win a National Finals.

The Eagles opened a six-point lead early before Gold Coast answered with a 9-0 run to lead 18-17 at quarter-time, Boston Mazlin already up to seven points.

Neither side could shoot. At half-time the scores were locked at 39-39 with Forestville 3-from-14 from outside and Gold Coast 2-from-15, and the Rollers were 9-from-10 from the charity stripe with Brodie McGregor up to 14 points. Mays had 13 for Forestville and James Mackenzie, off the bench, had 11.

Forestville took the third quarter 14-10 and led by nine at its widest, and that was the point at which a seven-man team ought to have folded. Gold Coast cut it back to 53-49 by three quarter-time instead.

The fourth was a grind with both teams close to out on their feet, and it belonged to McGrath. He levelled the scores from beyond the arc with three minutes to play, then answered a Daniel Johnson bucket with another three with a minute on the clock. That was the last score of regulation, at 63-63.

Neither team scored for the first two and a half minutes of overtime. McGrath broke it, Starling answered with a pair of jumpers, and McGrath put Gold Coast back in front inside the last minute.

Forestville had two looks to take it back. Johnson missed a corner three with 14.5 seconds left, coming out of a timeout, and Doyle could not finish a driving layup. Mazlin sealed it from the free-throw line.

The shooting is where the game was decided, and it is not the number the box score puts first.

Forestville were 3-from-28 from three. They made all three of those before half-time, which means they did not make a single one across the third quarter, the fourth quarter and overtime, 0-from-14 across 25 minutes of basketball. Gold Coast were not much better at 7-from-38, but five of their seven came after the break.

Everything else favoured the Eagles. They out-rebounded Gold Coast 55-50, and Gold Coast shot better inside the arc, at 50 per cent to Forestville's 48, but on 18 fewer attempts.

The other margin was the free-throw line, where Gold Coast went 13-from-16 against Forestville's 60 per cent.

Mazlin played all 45 minutes for 17 points, seven assists and five rebounds, and went 3-from-16 from three doing it. McGregor finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, with his father Scott on the coaching staff alongside Pero Cameron under Petrie. Cooper Urquhart added nine points, 10 rebounds and three assists.

Gold Coast finished with 21 assists on 25 made field goals, against Forestville's 12.

Mays was the best player on the floor for the losing side with 21 points, 12 rebounds, two steals and two blocks on 9-from-14 shooting. Johnson had five points, 12 rebounds and four assists. Fiston Ipassou scored 12 with six rebounds, Mackenzie 11 with two rebounds and two assists, Starling 10 with eight rebounds, and Doyle six with three rebounds and two assists.

Gold Coast outlasted Forestville 70–67 in overtime to claim the Championship at the State Basketball Centre in Wayville with Ashley McGrath's 21-point, nine-rebound, five-assist performance headlining a balanced Gold Coast effort that survived Greg Mays' double-double for Forestville.

By the Numbers

• Ashley McGrath (GC): 21 pts │ 9 reb │ 5 ast │ 3-of-3 FT
• Brodie McGregor (GC): 18 pts │ 11 reb │ 5 ast │ 7-of-8 FT
• Boston Mazlin (GC): 17 pts │ 5 reb │ 7 ast │ 3-of-3 2PT
• Cooper Urquhart (GC): 9 pts │ 10 reb │ 3 ast
• Greg Mays (FOR): 21 pts │ 12 reb │ 9-of-14 FG
• Daniel Johnson (FOR): 5 pts │ 12 reb │ 4 ast
• Fiston Ipassou (FOR): 12 pts │ 6 reb
• Alexander Starling (FOR): 10 pts │ 8 reb
• James Mackenzie (FOR): 11 pts │ 5-of-11 FG