Gold Coast Rollers one win away from first premiership in three decades

The Gold Coast Rollers are hoping to break a decades long premiership drought versus USC Rip City at home in Carrara. ALL THE GAME ONE ACTION

The Gold Coast Rollers are one win away from breaking a decades long premiership drought after taking down the USC Rip City 101-86 at Carrara on Friday night.

The Rollers flaunted an NBL packed line-up with Brisbane Bullets superstars Jason Cadee and Lamar Patterson leading the pack after a nervous start.

Hundreds of passionate fans packed the Carrara Indoor Sports Stadium as the Rollers roared home to victory — but captain Cadee won’t celebrate early.

“It got a bit ugly in the end, we let them get going a little bit but overall that’s a pretty good team effort,” Cadee said.

“We kept them to 86 but it could have been a bit lower, and at the end of the day you need to win two games, but there’s one (done).”

Cadee said it would be “incredible” to bring home a premiership for not only the team, but the Gold Coast.

“The crowd’s been incredible all year long but the last three weeks once we got to finals it’s just gone to another level and I think we’re just playing good basketball. They’re helping us win games.

“To reward everyone outside of ourselves would be a great achievement.”

The Rollers will look to seal the deal on Saturday night in the best-of-three series, but it could be a different result with the return of NBL powerhouse and NBL1 North MVP Kouat Noi.

Noi was made unavailable due to pre-season commitments with the Sydney Kings and must participate in the their Saturday morning training session before flying to the Gold Coast at midday for game two.

“He’s a key feature for them and he’ll come in ready to go so it goes to another level tomorrow but for us it’s just the same thing,” Cadeee said.

The last time the Rollers were able to bring home a state league title was in 1988 and 1987, where they went back-to-back, while in 2019 both the men's and women’s teams finished runners-up.

Billy Rigby. Photo: Trent Schwarz.