South Spotlight | McCarron, Whelan spark big Eltham win

Featured image: Travis Palmieri | traviphotography

With Mitch McCarron expertly running the show and Sam Whelan on fire from behind the arc, the Eltham Wildcats proved too strong for the Frankston Blues with the 95-81 home Wednesday night win.

It was Wednesday night NBL1 South action at Montmorency Secondary College with the Wildcats looking to bounce back from a last up loss to the Dandenong Rangers while the Blues were looking for a third win in the first four games.

The Wildcats took control of the contest with 25 points to 11 in the second quarter and the way McCarron ran the team helped that cause with them having 16 assists already to the half.

Then with Whelan going 6/7 from downtown for the game even with the rest of the team managing just 4/19, Eltham would end up leading by as much as 28 points on the way to the 14-point win to improve to 3-2 on the season while Frankston are now 2-2.

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It was a third win of the season for Eltham with Sam Whelan hitting his first four three-point attempts, and going 6/7 for the game even if he didn’t end up getting another attempt off from two minutes to go in the third quarter.

He ended the night with 21 points with six assists and four rebounds while the Wildcats were +20 in his 28 minutes.

Zak Cunningham also finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Wildcats, TJ Weeks 15 points and four assists, Leonardo Colimério 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists, and Harry Hornery 11 points, three boards and two steals.

Then there was Mitch McCarron who showed all of his 270 games of NBL experience along with being the starting point guard on a Melbourne United championship team. He finished with eight points, nine assists and four rebounds to be +21 in just under 28 minutes.

Each team was hunting the mid-week victory and they both had time with the momentum in the opening quarter but by quarter-time it was Eltham with the 24-21 advantage.

That was despite Eltham shooting 56 per cent to Frankston's 42, but four offensive rebounds and six points from Austin Shelley helped keep the Blues in touch.

The Wildcats then took over the contest in the second period including going on a 9-0 scoring run to open up an 18-point advantage with Mitch McCarron running the show expertly to show the way with the team having 16 assists on their 19 made field goals and six free throws.

The Blues managed just the 11 points in the quarter on 4/19 shooting including going 0/8 from deep but Eltham opposed to that had 25 points on 9/17 shooting to go into half-time in control at 49-32.

The scoring rate picked up for both teams in the third quarter with Eltham scoring another 29 points and Frankston 27, but the lead for the Wildcats got out to as much 21 and by three quarter-time they were still well on top leading by 19.

That lead for the Wildcats ballooned to 28 early in the fourth period too before the Blues did manage to go on a 7-0 scoring and pull the final losing margin back to 14.

Both teams are back in action on Saturday night in Round 3 of the NBL1 South with the Wildcats on the road to the Ballarat Miners while the Blues play host to the Kilsyth Cobras.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | ROUND 3

ELTHAM WILDCATS 95 (Whelan 21, Cunningham 16, Weeks 15)

FRANKSTON BLUES 81 (Shelley 25, Daniel Trist 22, Walker 15)