Northern Spirit Basketball Club claim Karratha title after 20-point thrashing of Karratha Kats

The Northern Spirit Basketball Club have been crowned 2023 Karratha Basketball champions after a stellar performance in the preliminary final was backed up with a dominant grand final win.

On Thursday, Flames Grey took on Northern Spirit Basketball Club Warriors for the preliminary final in a matchup at Karratha Lesuireplex.

NSBC mens held a clear advantage throughout – having four substitutions compared to only one available to Flames Gray.

Doubling the score of their opponents, NSBC warrior sealed the win with a 32-16 score.

After a tense first half, which catapulted the second half into a slugfest for collisions, NSBC made their mark early on in the matchup.

Speaking to Pilbara News on Thursday, NSBC player Aaron Chambers said it was a “tough game” and “couldn’t wait to put it all on display on the Saturday grand final.

“Its always a tough game, they really played awesome,” he said.

Then, on Saturday, NSBC Warriors were crowned 2023 Karratha Basketball champions after a strong performance in the grand final saw them almost double their opponents’ score.

Despite it being April fools day, there were no jokes on the court as the NSBC Warriors faced off against the Karratha Kats.

And there was plenty to play for, with NSBC looking to avenge their finals round 1 loss to the Kats, and the Kats hoping they could move to 3 wins, 1 loss against NSBC for the season.

Both teams finished the season on equal points, with 11 wins and three losses each, but the grand final jitters seemed to get the better of the Kats, who struggled to make baskets all game, allowing NSBC to sweep to a 20-point lead by the final siren, NSBC 50 to Kats 30.

Warriors’ Aaron Chambers was the standout player on the night, managing 18 points off the back of three 2-pointers, and four 3-pointers.

As far as season awards go, Karratha Kats’ Jordan Shand finished as the league scoring leader with 174, followed by Preston Snook from Mayuga Majik (159 points), and Jake Levey from Flames Grey (149 points).