Gunners shoot down 'Neers for national title

• The Canberra Gunners beat the Geraldton Buccaneers 86-67 to win the NBL1 Men's National Championship
• Will Mayfield won MVP after a 21-point and 14-rebound performance
• Canberra won the national title in front of their home fans at Southern Cross Stadium

A suffocating defensive performance has helped the Canberra Gunners complete a fairytale run to become NBL1 men's national champions after an 86-67 win on their home court at Southern Cross Stadium.

The Gunners allowed just 47 points from Geraldton in the final three quarters and kept the NBL1 West champions to 36% shooting to run away with a 19-point victory and add another championship banner to their trophy cabinet.

Will Mayfield won the Grand Final MVP after sparking the Gunners' performance with 21 points and 14 rebounds.

Canberra, who surprised many by even making it to the nationals following a surprise upset win over a star-studded Illawarra side in the NBL1 East final, came into the contest full of confidence after demolishing the NBL1 North champion Southern Districts Spartans in the semi-final. That form showed in the opening quarter as they jumped out to an early lead and had the Southern Cross Stadium rocking with Gunners fans as Mayfield seemingly took over the game early.

After a nailbiting semi-final victory over Sandringham, Geraldton were up for the fight, battling back to only trail by seven at quarter-time with the likes of Hawks development player Johnny Narkle and his supporting cast battling to stay in the game. But discipline was an issue as the first half was marred by several unsportsmanlike and technical foul calls which had the Western Australians up in arms.

Everything was going Canberra's way and they used that momentum to dominate the second quarter 26-15 on their way to a 53-35 advantage at halftime.

From there, the Gunners couldn't be stopped. Derek Emelifeonwu (17 points), captain Glenn Morison (10 points and eight rebounds), James Toohey (11 points and six rebounds) as well as Theus Evan Wardlow (10 points) all reached double figures as the home side had not one, but two hands on the trophy early in the second half.

The Buccaneers continued to try and work their way back, with livewire guard Verle Williams, who was Geraldton's leading scorer with 13 points, coming up with arguably the play of the grand final, but the deficit was too much to overcome as the Gunners completed a fairytale NBL1 East and National Finals win on their home court.

Canberra dominated both on the boards (54-38) and from the free-throw line with 21-from-30 compared to 11-from-18 from Geraldton.