NBL1 East Recap | Sunday Round 5

WNBL pair Vanessa Panousis and Shyla Heal combined for 64 points in a big Sydney Comets NBL1 East win on Sunday while their men's team bounced back and the Bankstown Bruins and Albury-Wodonga Bandits split their match ups.

The two Round 5 NBL1 East Sunday women's match ups saw the Bankstown Bruins defeat the Albury-Wodonga Bandits 65-62 and the Sydney Comets beat the Central Coast Crusaders 84-67.

Then in the men's match ups, the Bandits beat the Bruins 95-81, and the Comets defeated the Crusaders 96-72.

WOMEN

Bandits hand reigning champs second loss of weekend

The Bankstown Bruins handed the defending champion Albury-Wodonga Bandits their second loss of the weekend with a thrilling 65-62 win on Sunday.

The defending champion Bandits had lost a Grand Final rematch to the Sutherland Sharks on Saturday night to begin the road double-header in Round 5 before Bankstown handed them a second loss on Sunday afternoon.

The three-point win improves the Bandits to a 3-3 record on the season while the Bandits are now 4-2.

Violet Morrow ended up top-scoring for Bankstown in the win with 21 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three steals with Shalome Dunlop contributing 15 points and four boards, and Briana Maimone 12 points, six rebounds and three assists.

Casey Ardern put up 17 points and two steals for Albury-Wodonga with Emma Mahady adding 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists, and Elizabeth Murphy 10 points, 11 rebounds and two steals.

Emma Mahady has the hot hand ?

Back-to-back early triples for the Bandits star!

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Panousis, Heal combine for 64 points in big Comets win

They started this past WNBL season teammates at the Sydney Flames and Vanessa Panousis are back together in the NBL1 East and combined for 64 points in Sunday's 84-67 road win against the Central Coast Crusaders.

It was quite the eventful WNBL season for Heal where she started with the Flames but finished off winning a championship with the Townsville Fire, but she's back in Sydney now and has joined up with new Flames coach Shelley Gorman.

She's reunited with former Flames teammate Panousis too and they put on quite the show on Sunday in the eventual 17-point victory against Central Coast.

Panousis was brilliant for the Comets with 40 points, four rebounds and four assists on the back of shooting 14/25 from the floor, 8/15 from long-range and 4/4 at the foul line.

Heal was playing just her second game for the Comets and also finished with 24 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.

Jasmine Forcadilla top-scored for Central Coast with 19 points, five rebounds and three assists with Sara Matthews contributing 14 points, 10 boards and three assists.

MEN

Bandits bounce back for solid road win over Bruins

The Albury-Wodonga Bandits bounced back from a Saturday night loss to score a 95-81 victory on the road to the Bankstown Bruins on Sunday.

Both the Bandits and Bruins suffered losses on Saturday to Sutherland and Canberra respectively to set the stage for Sunday's clash at Bankstown Basketball Stadium.

Albury-Wodonga started strongly away from home with 33 points to 19 in the first quarter. That set the tone for the rest of the afternoon with the Bandits holding that edge to claim the 14-point win in the finish.

Former two-time NBL1 West championship winning guard Lochlan Cummings was terrific for Albury-Wodonga with 21 points, four rebounds and four assists with Michael Parks contributing 18 points, 13 boards and three blocks.

Jamir Coleman added 17 points, seven rebounds and three steals, and Jack Saunders 15 points with 5/7 three-point shooting.

Alex Foster finished with 18 points and nine rebounds for Bankstown with Dragan Elkaz adding 18 points and five assists, Miguel Campos 15 points, four rebounds and four assists, and Adrian Vuljanic 11 points and six boards.

Seth Chapman ducked, weaved and spun his way to one of the toughest buckets you'll see! ?

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Comets respond to first loss with big win over Crusaders

The Sydney Comets suffered a heartbreaking Friday night loss but hit back on Sunday to beat the Central Coast Crusaders 96-72 on the road on Sunday.

The Comets lost by a point at home to the Sutherland Sharks on Friday night for their first loss in the NBL1 East, but they responded emphatically on Sunday to beat the Crusaders by 24 points at Breakers Indoor Sports Stadium.

Sydney improved to 5-1 on the season with the win but it was Central Coast who started well on their home floor to be up 26-22 by quarter-time.

The Comets turned things around with 27 points to 17 in the second quarter before another 21 to 12 in the third, and 26 to 17 in the fourth to claim the 24-point victory.

Ilisia Washington top-scored for the Comets with 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists with Archer Woodhill contributing 14 points and seven boards, and Isaiah Oste-Pinder 13 points, 10 boards and three steals.

Jamal Shoaib top-scored for Central Coast with 18 points with Aaron Redhead adding 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Luke Cassidy 16 points and nine steals.

Central Coast goes coast to coast ?

Those passes are ?????????.

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— NBL1 (@NBL1) April 16, 2023