AUSTRALIAN basketball’s most famous name continues to make waves in 2025, with Spencer Gaze putting together an outstanding performance as his Central Districts Lions defeated the Forestville Eagles in the NBL1 Central Men’s competition.

At 19 years of age, Gaze is an exciting young talent, and being the nephew of Andrew Gaze, the youngster has plenty of potential and has shown a fair bit throughout his first couple of seasons in the NBL1. The Lions had reached the semifinals and were looking to advance straight through to the Grand Final with their matchup against the Eagles at State Basketball Centre (Wayville) on Saturday night.

The first quarter set the tone for the match from a Central Districts standpoint, with the Lions leading by 20 points at the first change, although it was reduced to just 11 at the main break. The Eagles fought to stay in the match, but a 34-16 final frame saw the Lions break away late to cruise home to a comfortable 33-point triumph.

Coming off the bench, Gaze had an immense impact for the Lions, proving one of their most reliable scoring options and having a massive say in his side advancing to the final matchup, where he will be a key figure once again.

Forestville Eagles (74) def. by Central Districts Lions (107)

Spencer Gaze – 26 points, nine rebounds, one assist, two blocks

Providing a spark in his 25 minutes of court time, Gaze was tremendous for the Lions and helped them prove far too damaging on the offensive end for the Eagles to handle, in one of the best performances of his short career.

He came into the match midway through the first term, with his side already leading by double digits and firmly in control of the contest. He got involved almost immediately with a nice driving layup in transition to help Central Districts continue to build a strong lead. He nailed his timing to provide a highlight play with a nice alley-oop play from a Kalani Sapwell assist. Gaze then repaid the favour by finding Sapwell on the perimeter with a nice dish out assist as the Lions broke out to a massive buffer at quarter time.

After spending a large chunk of the second quarter on the bench, he returned to the frame halfway through the period, and showed his relentlessness on the glass with some strong offensive boards, even nailing a nice putback tip-in. Gaze closed out the quarter with three layups in the span of a minute to show his scoring potential, and take back some control after the Eagles got going in a crucial patch of play.

It was a quiet third frame for Gaze, who struggled to find the bottom of the net as consistently coming out of half time, and sat for most of the frame. He was trying to get his eye in from behind the arc, but the three-pointers were not falling, although he did still produce a basket on the eve of three-quarter time with another nicely timed cut and finish at the hoop, with the Lions leading by 15 points with 10 minutes to play.

Gaze got going immediately in the fourth quarter to help Central Districts start the term on a 4-0 run as the young gun nailed another pair of layups. He showed his defensive smarts with a nice swat on an attempted Alexander Starling layup before going down the other end and nailing yet another inside score through contact, although he missed the and-one. After heading to the bench for a few minutes, he returned and looked even more aggressive with his drives into the basket, drawing contact and nailing the free throws, before capping off a strong performance with a nice dunk to seal the win.

He finished the game with 26 points to be the second leading scorer for the match, trailing only Sapwell’s 27 points as the pair ran riot. Gaze shot 11/17 from the field and nailed 11 of his 12 attempts from inside the paint, where he did all of his damage in what was a breakout performance.