The National Championship defence of the Canberra Gunners remains alive after their win on Friday against the Rockingham Flames.

Featured image: Tia De Santis | @tia.desa

Blake Jones put up 45 points back in Adelaide but it wasn’t enough for the NBL1 West champion Rockingham Flames with the Canberra Gunners keeping their National Finals defence alive with 29 points from Will Mayfield in 110-93 win.

The championship defence for the Gunners in the NBL1 East didn’t quite go to plan in 2026 with them ending the regular season in sixth place and then eliminated at home by the Maitland Mustangs.

That happened back on July 25 so they had almost a month to set themselves to defend their NBL1 National Finals win last year in a similar way to what the Knox Raiders did on the Sunshine Coast back in 2024.

Aside from Glenn Morison whose season ended with a knee injury some time ago, the Gunners arrived in Adelaide with all their stars too while Rockingham didn’t following their NBL1 West championship triumph over the Geraldton Buccaneers last Saturday night.

Even though the National Finals were back home for him, Isaac White was unavailable for the Flames as NBL27 approaches with the Adelaide 36ers after he was Grand Final MVP last Saturday night and been NBL1 West MVP the last two years.

Michael Harris remained sidelined through injury as did Tevin Jackson so a lot was left riding on the shoulders for the Flames of the 2022 National Finals Grand Final MVP Ryan Godfrey along with a man who starred on the Sunshine Coast for Mackay in 2024, Emmett Naar.

Laquinton Ross and Blake Jones were then holding down the front court but Canberra wasted no time shaking off their cobwebs with 30 points to 20 in the first quarter in their first game in almost a month.

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Canberra were feeling good and put up another 32 points to 19 in the second quarter too and by half-time the reigning champs were well in control against the 2022 champions with the 62-39 advantage.

Rockingham did stick with Canberra from there throughout the second half avoiding a further blowout including getting back to 16 just before three quarter-time with a triple from 374-game NBL1 West veteran Ryan Godfrey.

It was then 27 points apiece in the fourth quarter with Canberra going on to score the 17-point win to keep their chances at back-to-back National Finals wins alive heading into Saturday's semi finals ahead of the Championship Game on Sunday.

The Gunners ended up shooting 45 per cent from the field to 38 along with 15/40 from the outside to 9/32, and 21/24 to 18/22 at the free-throw line even through the Flames pulled down 23 offensive rebounds to 11, and did get up an extra six shot attempts.

Will Mayfield starred in the win for Canberra with 29 points, six rebounds, three steals and two assists with 14/15 shooting at the foul line.

DJ Hoskins Jr added 18 points and four assists with 4/8 three-point shooting, Cameron Pender 18 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and three steals, Lachlan Smith 15 points, two boards and two steals, and James Toohey nine points, six rebounds and six assists.

Blake Jones had a huge night for Rockingham trying to make up for the absences of Isaac White, Tevin Jackson and Michael Harris. He finished with 45 points, 15 rebounds and three assists with 16/26 field goal shooting and going 12/14 at the free-throw line.

Emmett Naar just missed a triple double with 20 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds while Ryan Godfrey contributed 12 points, four boards and two blocks, Laquinton Ross seven points, 11 rebounds, four assists and two blocks, and championship captain Travis Durnin six points and 10 boards.

NBL1 NATIONALS FINALS 2026 | DAY 1

CANBERRA GUNNERS 110 (Mayfield 29, Pender 18, Hoskins 18)

ROCKINGHAM FLAMES 93 (Jones 45, Naar 20, Godfrey 12)

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National Finals | Mayfield's 29 trumps Jones' 45