West Recap | Round 18 Saturday

Image credit: Madeleine Clark | @madeleineclarkmedia

Goldfields Giants welcomed back Joshua Duach and locked in a home NBL1 West final as did Geraldton Buccaneers who continued their scintillating form and Perry Lakes Hawks women did the same.

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WOMEN

Perry Lakes Hawks (93) defeated Goldfields Giants (62)

The Perry Lakes Hawks locked away a home final and will go into the post-season with some impressive momentum after Saturday's 93-62 win over the Goldfields Giants.

The last women's game of the regular season took place on Saturday at Bendat Basketball Centre with both teams making their lone appearance of the weekend after all the other teams were in action on Friday night.

Perry Lakes needed the win to move ahead of Willetton and to lock in a home final on the back of beating the East Perth Eagles last week even while not quite at full strength still missing Megan McKay but having regained Jayda Clark and Alex Fowler.

Goldfields were just looking for a positive finish to their season on the hunt of a first road win of 2025 and to make it consecutive victories for the first time after last Saturday night's home win against the Eastern Suns.

Perry Lakes finished the opening quarter strongly to be leading 24-14 at quarter-time while shooting 11/19 from the field opposed to the 6/16 from Goldfields.

The Hawks then turned that into a 12-0 run during the second quarter with the lead growing to as much as 23 points. Perry Lakes would end up outscoring Goldfields 31 to 20 in that second period to go into half-time well in control leading 55-34.

It was more of the same throughout the second half with the Perry Lakes lead growing to 30 points in the third quarter and 31 in the fourth on the way to the eventual 31-point victory.

The Hawks finished the game shooting 48 per cent from the field with 10/28 from downtown while Goldfields went at 37 per cent overall and 5/19 from deep while Perry Lakes also forced the Giants into 19 turnovers.

Perry Lakes finish the regular season with a record of 11-9 which has them equal with Mandurah and Willetton, and they finish sixth just below the Magic but just ahead of the Tigers.

Now the Hawks will play host to the Tigers in an elimination final next weekend.

Jayda Clark is gearing up for a return from injury WNBL season at the UC Capitals and she is going to do so in impressive form after another 21 points, three rebounds and three assists.

Maddy Dennis added 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists with 3/5 three-point shooting while Alex Fowler contributed 12 points, five boards and four assists, Eryn Fisher eight points and five rebounds, and Ruby Vlahov eight points and three boards.

The Giants finish their season with a 4-16 record and unable to win a game outside of Kalgoorlie in 2025 with import forward Erin Antosh producing 16 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Nici Gilday was up against her most recent former team and had nine points, five rebounds and two assists with Kate Sidebottom adding nine points, Kiriana Hawaikirangi eight points, three rebounds and three assists, Hazelle Yam six points and six boards, Chloe Zorzi seven points and four rebounds, and Josephine Odude four points and 10 boards.

PERRY LAKES HAWKS 93 (Clark 21, Dennis 19, Fowler 12)

GOLDFIELDS GIANTS 62 (Antosh 16, Gilday 9, Sidebottom 9)

MEN

East Perth Eagles (68) lost to Geraldton Buccaneers (119)

The Geraldton Buccaneers will enter the finals as the hottest team in the NBL1 West and might not need to return to Perth until grand final night after beating the East Perth Eagles 119-68.

The Saturday match up at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre was one where there wasn’t a whole lot to gain for the Eagles who were already guaranteed of finishing eighth no matter the result despite losing on Friday night to the Joondalup Wolves.

With the Eastern Suns losing at the same time to the Mandurah Magic, East Perth were locked into eighth ahead of playing host to a Geraldton team who beat the Perth Redbacks on Friday night and had to win again on Saturday to replace Warwick in second place and earn a home qualifying final.

With nothing really for East Perth to play for, leading scorer Max Rice didn’t suit up but still the home team stuck with Geraldton with the Buccs only holding the narrow 25-22 lead by quarter-time despite attempting an extra eight field goals.

It was in the second term where the Buccaneers really took control with 38 points to 16 with 14/24 shooting from the floor to the 5/18 from the Eagles.

That saw Geraldton lead 63-38 by half-time and then as the second half unfolded, both teams just largely went through the motions and emptied their benches with the result beyond doubt, and both preparing to start their finals campaign next week.

The Buccs ended up scoring the 51-point victory and now will enter the finals from second position with an 18-4 record and having won 11 straight matches.

The winning margin in those 11 wins now for the Buccs has been 28 points while they have scored at least 100 points in each of them and are going at a stunning 113.5 points a game.

That has the Buccaneers in ominous form as they renew their rivalry with the Warwick Senators back in Geraldton next Saturday night in a qualifying final.

Johny Narkle continues to bang down the door for an NBL opportunity and produced 26 points, six rebounds, four assists, four blocks and three steals for Geraldton.

Fellow Grand Final MVP Liam Hunt also had 18 points, five rebounds and five assists with Nik DeSantis adding 17 points, nine boards, four assists and two steals, Akeem Springs 15 points, seven assists and five rebounds, and Josh Keyes 13 points, three boards and two assists.

Verle Williams added 12 points, five rebounds and two assists, and 230-game veteran Ryan Blanchett 11 points, five boards, three assists and two blocked shots.

East Perth will now be playing finals for a second straight season after a 10-year absence when they take on the Joondalup Wolves in an elimination final.

Fabian Johnson had the best of his 33-game career with East Perth by top-scoring with 18 points, four rebounds and three assists with 4/6 three-point shooting.

Teenager Kuron Swaka Lo Buluk made the most of his 14:30 of court time too with the younger brother of Perth Wildcats, Sydney Kings and Illawarra Hawks NBL champion Wani producing eight points and an assist.

Ioannis Dimakopoulos also scored nine points and had four rebounds with Chier Maker finishing with seven points and two boards, Matthew Lang six points, four rebounds and two assists, Lee Roberts six points, four boards and two assists, and Kai Kabugua four points, eight rebounds and two steals.

EAST PERTH EAGLES 68 (Johnson 18, Dimakopoulos 9, Swaka Lo Buluk 8)

GERALDTON BUCCANEERS 119 (Narkle 26, Hunt 18, DeSantis 17)

Perry Lakes Hawks (88) lost to Goldfields Giants (99)

Joshua Duach returned for the Goldfields Giants with 30 points and his team will enter another finals campaign with momentum after Saturday's 99-88 road win over the Perry Lakes Hawks.

There was plenty on the line for the Giants as well in the last game of the regular season with them needing to beat the Hawks at Bendat Basketball Centre to lock away a home final.

Goldfields were already guaranteed of an elimination final match up next week with the defending champion Mandurah Magic, but they had to win against Perry Lakes to make sure that game would be back in Kalgoorlie at the sparkling new Niels Hansen Basketball Stadium.

There wasn’t anything on the line as such for the Hawks who had lost their past 10 matches to fall from playoff contention and once again they were without Seva Chan, Keegan Phillips, Luke Phillips and Nick Floyd.

The Giants also arrived having rediscovered some form and momentum having won their past two games by a combined 34 points at home to the Perth Redbacks and Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

It was tight going early with the Giants only narrowly leading 27-25 by quarter-time before the visitors did begin to pull away in the second term with 29 points to 21.

That saw Goldfields leading 54-44 at half-time thanks to getting to the foul line 17 times to three and shooting 17/33 from the field opposed to the 18/38 from Perry Lakes.

Despite that lead for the Giants getting out to 13 points in the second half, they could never fully shake the Hawks with the home team getting back to within four late in the piece to send a real scare into Goldfields.

A loss would mean the Giants would have to travel to Mandurah in a cut-throat final next weekend and as a result they responded by scoring the last seven points of the game to turn that four-point lead into the 11-point victory.

As a result, Goldfields finishes the season with three straight wins with a 12-10 record with Joshua Duach returning after missing the previous two games for 30 points and four rebounds on 10/12 field goal shooting.

Shaun Stewart also provided 25 points, seven rebounds and three steals, Michael Jok 18 points and four assists, De'Sean Parsons 13 points, six rebounds and six assists, and Jerom Reid six points and four boards.

Perry Lakes see their season finish with a 7-15 record and 11 consecutive defeats despite Matt Leary finishing on fire with 36 points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals with 9/17 three-point shooting.

Jaden Stanley-Williams added 17 points and five rebounds, Max Bucknell 11 points on 5/6 shooting, Davin Miller 10 points and seven rebounds, and captain AJ Nobensi a career-best 16 assists to go with three points and seven boards.

PERRY LAKES HAWKS 88 (Leary 36, Stanley-Williams 17, Bucknell 11)

GOLDFIELDS GIANTS 99 (Duach 30, Stewart 25, Jok 18)