19-YEAR-OLD Elliott Brown has continued his strong start to the 2025 NBL1 South Men’s season, leading the Sandringham Sabres to a seven-point win over the Ringwood Hawks to close out the ANZAC Round in style over the weekend.

It had been a disappointing start to the fixture for the Sabres, who were winless from six games in the opening week of the season, and were fresh off a heartbreaking one-point loss at the hands of the Kilsyth Cobras earlier in the round. On the other hand, the Hawks had been decent with two wins from their first five games to start the year and entered the clash as favourites, especially considering they had home court advantage at The Rings on Sunday afternoon.

It was a high-scoring start to the contest, with Ringwood holding a 29-27 lead after the first quarter in an entertaining way to begin proceedings. The second quarter was all one-way traffic, with the Sabres outscoring the home side by 14 points to lead by 12 at the main change in easily their best period of the 2025 fixture to date. Although the Hawks improved in the second half, they could not quite chase down the deficit, as Sandringham claimed its first win of the season.

Although the Sabres boast plenty of experienced campaigners, it was their young gun in Brown that proved the difference, with the guard delivering a career-best showing against the Hawks.

Ringwood Hawks (97) def. by Sandringham Sabres (104)

Elliott Brown – 30 points, five rebounds, six assists

Brown delivered the best performance of his NBL1 career on Sunday afternoon, which is impressive considering how consistent his campaign has been for such an emerging talent.

It was a red-hot start to the match for the guard, who was looking to drive inside wherever possible despite some tough defensive pressure from the Hawks both at the perimeter and in the paint. He was finding plenty of success scoring the ball at the cup and looked to consistently get the defence back-pedalling and out of position.

He had an early highlight where he drove into the paint, absorbed the contact and still found the bottom of the net for an and-one opportunity. Brown was the most impactful player on the floor after the first 10 minutes of play, with 10 points to his name and plenty of production for the Sabres on the offensive side of the ball.

By the time Brown nailed his first triple of the match, it was evident he was in for a big match, and the Hawks were forced to make defensive adjustments to try and slow down his production. Luckily for Sandringham, this opened up other players, and the visitors were able to take a double-digit lead into the second quarter.

Brown continued to have a say in the match in the third quarter, opening up the offence with his passing coming out of half time to ensure the Sabres stayed in front. He took advantage of how committed the defence was to keeping him out of the paint, finding teammates to create open looks for others. The young gun still got involved on the scoring front, dashing to the hoop in transition and knocking down his second triple of the match to keep Sandringham in a winning position.

With the Hawks erasing the deficit late in the fourth quarter, he was injected back into the contest with a few minutes on the clock, and stepped up with some match winning plays. Firstly, Brown nailed the driving layup to help the Sabres retake the lead, before nailing the dagger with an and-one midrange jumper to put his side up by five with less than a minute to play. He ultimately accounted for all of Sandringham’s final seven points, showing maturity and composure beyond his years.

He was far and away the most influential player on the court in a breakthrough win for his side, with 30 points on 9/16 shooting from the field, 2/3 shooting from long range and 10/12 shooting from the charity stripe, in what was undoubtedly a statement performance.