West Recap | Round 1 Sunday

Image credit: Tyson Lumbaca (@ty.visuales)

The Geraldton Buccaneers can never be counted out and they produced a dominant fourth quarter led by Liam Hunt and Akeem Springs to overpower the Eastern Suns to complete their NBL1 West opening round road double.

WEST RECAP | ROUND 1 SATURDAY

WEST RECAP | ROUND 1 FRIDAY

HOW WOMEN'S NBL1 WEST IS SHAPING UP

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Eastern Suns (67) lost to Geraldton Buccaneers (78)

It was quite the challenging road double to start the season for the Geraldton Buccaneers but they dug deep after losing in overtime on Saturday to power home and beat the Eastern Suns 78-67 on Sunday.

The Buccs are not short on motivation coming into the 2025 having been the dominant team last regular season but then losing their home preliminary final to the Willetton Tigers but it was a significant road trip they faced to open the season.

There was a lot to like with what Geraldton did on Saturday night but they ended up losing in overtime to the Joondalup Wolves ahead of coming up an Eastern Suns team with a star-studded line-up and having beaten the South West Slammers the previous evening.

The Suns were playing their first home game at Ray Owen Sports Centre as well to unveil Marshall Nelson and Terrico to the home crowd, and they did appear in control of the contest for a lot of the first three quarters.

Kalamunda was able to open up a 27-21 lead by quarter-time before still being on top 45-33 by the half-time break.

However, Geraldton began to eat into that deficit in the back end of the third quarter and then completely dominated the final period with 25 points to 10 to overrun the Suns and secure the 11-point victory before jumping on the bus back home.

Liam Hunt was outstanding in the win for the Buccs with 19 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks on 8/14 shooting from the field with 2/3 from downtown.

New import Akeem Springs was exciting too with 21 points and four rebounds while Johny Narkle was at his energetic best too with 18 points, 10 boards, six assists and two steals.

Joshua Keyes added 15 points, nine rebounds and three assists as well with Verle Williams contributing five points, four boards, three steals and two assists.

Just scoring 22 points the entire second half wasn’t the way Kalamunda wanted to mark its first home game with Marshall Nelson ending up with 21 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals.

He was the only Suns player to score in double-figures with Terrico White never really getting into the game despite playing 34 minutes with eight points, four rebounds and three steals on 2/6 shooting.

Travis Fee added nine points and six rebounds, Lewis Thomas eight points, eight boards, five assists and two steals, and Reece Maxwell eight points and two assists.

EASTERN SUNS 67 (Nelson 21, Fee 9, White 8, Thomas 8, Maxwell 8)

GERALDTON BUCCANEERS 78 (Springs 21, Hunt 19, Narkle 18)