West Recap | National Finals Day 1

The Cockburn Cougars and Geraldton Buccaneers made dominant starts to the NBL1 National Finals in Canberra with big wins on Friday.

NBL1 West Grand Final MVP's Ruby Porter and Johny Narkle carried their form over to the NBL1 National Finals in Canberra in commanding Friday wins for both the Cockburn Cougars and Geraldton Buccaneers.

The Cougars beat the NBL1 Central's Woodville Warriors 132-85 before the Buccaneers defeated the West Adelaide Bearcats 96-71 with both teams now one win away from the National Finals championship game on Sunday.

The Cougars will play the NBL1 North's Logan Thunder on Saturday at 12pm Perth time while the Buccaneers play the NBL1 South's Sandringham Sabres at 11:30am.

COUGARS, BUCCS ENTER NATIONAL FINALS AS TOP SEEDS

GERALDTON SUPPORT MEANS EVERYTHING TO WUNDENBERG

RALPH 99 PER CENT SURE OF FAIRYTALE FINISH

WILLIAMS PROUD TO BRING SUCCESS TO COUGAR FAMILY

WEST RECAP | MEN'S GRAND FINAL 2025

WEST RECAP | WOMEN'S GRAND FINAL 2025

WOMEN

Cockburn Cougars (132) defeated Woodville Warriors (85)

The Cockburn Cougars are the lone undefeated team in all of the NBL1 across the country and the NBL1 West champions showed why with a dominant 132-85 win over the NBL1 Central's Woodville Warriors to open the National Finals.

The Cougars have now played in three straight NBL1 West Grand Finals for championships in 2023 and 2025, and they arrive in Canberra having won all 23 of their games this season including a win at RAC Arena in the decider last Saturday night against the Warwick Senators.

Cockburn did arrive at the National Finals without a couple of key players, import Daniel Raber and college bound Amelia Corasaniti, but they weren’t shy on weapons with Steph Gorman, Jewel Williams, Ruby Porter and Jaya Scafidi all having WNBL experience.

Woodville arrived having won the NBL1 Central championship with the fairytale story of Erin Phillips leading the way. However, she wasn’t on hand to play in Canberra and nor were her championship teammates Jordan Hunter, Laura Erikstrup and Ida Andersson.

That was always going to make it tough for them to take it up to the powerful Cockburn outfit and it proved to be the case with a hot start from the Cougars already opening up a 34-19 lead by quarter-time.

Cockburn knocked down 5/12 from three to 1/5 in that opening period before adding another 35 points to 21 in the second period to be on top 69-40 going into half-time.

In that first half, the Cougars shot 24/52 from the field with 11/28 from three to the 14/42 from the Warriors who also had just 3/15 from downtown.

It was another 34 points to 25 in the third quarter from Cockburn, and 29 to 20 in the fourth as they ended up scoring the 47-point win to move to 24-0 in 2025 and make quite the statement to open the National Finals.

The Cougars got up 101 shot attempts for the game and shot at 47 per cent along with going 16/46 three-point range with 22/33 from the foul line. The Warriors still took 89 shots with 37 per cent while hitting 7/34 from three-point territory and 12/12 at the free-throw line.

Cockburn also had 26 offensive rebounds while forcing Woodville into 26 turnovers and NBL1 West Grand Final MVP Ruby Porter was brilliant once again with 34 points, nine steals, three rebounds and three assists with 6/10 three-point shooting.

Sarah Mortensen added 27 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and four steals, Jessie Edwards 23 points, 14 boards, four assists and four blocks, Jewel Williams 17 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals, and Steph Gorman 11 points, three assists and two boards.

It was a tough outing for the Warriors with Naomi Allotey top-scoring with 26 points to go with 19 rebounds and six assists.

Ambah Kowcun also had 18 points, six rebounds and four steals, Casey Real 11 points, Jasmin Fejo 10 points, seven assists, six rebounds and two steals, Eliza Joynes eight points and seven boards, and Chelsea Apacible eight points and two assists.

COCKBURN COUGARS 132 (Porter 34, Mortensen 27, Edwards 23)

WOODVILLE WARRIORS 85 (Allotey 26, Kowcun 18, Real 11)

MEN

Geraldton Buccaneers (96) defeated West Adelaide Bearcats (71)

New Illawarra Hawk Johny Narkle continued his hot form with the Geraldton Buccaneers with another 29 points as the NBL1 West champions beat the shorthanded West Adelaide Bearcats 96-71 to open the National Finals.

Only six days ago did the Buccaneers produced a tremendous NBL1 West Grand Final performance at RAC Arena for the championship by beating the Warwick Senators with Narkle the standout player on the court to win a second Grand Final MVP award.

He is also in Canberra as part of the Illawarra Hawks ahead of NBL26 this week, but was allowed to continue suiting up for the Buccaneers who came into the National Finals with a full squad available aside from three-time championship hero Liam Hunt who hurt a knee back on Saturday night.

They were taking on a West Adelaide team who produced a tremendous finish to the NBL1 Central season to win the Grand Final at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre two weeks ago, but their side was decimated from the one that won that title.

The Bearcats arrived in Canberra without the services of Lat Mayen, Keanu Rasmussen, Cameron Huefner and Jacob Tryon so they were always going to be facing an uphill battle against Geraldton.

It didn’t take long for the Buccaneers to work on top opening up a 13-point lead in the first quarter and to be on top 27-15 by the end of one thanks to shooting 11/20 from the field to the 6/20 from the Bearcats.

West Adelaide did well to stem the tide in the second quarter and limit Geraldton's lead to 46-36 by half-time and then the Buccs had only extended that by a further five in the third term.

However, in the fourth the greater depth of the Buccaneers came through as they put up 27 points to 17 to score the 25-point victory and do their chances of a first National Finals championship no harm at all.

The Buccs had a hot offensive performance with 56 per cent field goal shooting to just 41 from West Adelaide while they forced the Bearcats into 20 turnovers for the contest.

Coming off a second Grand Final MVP with the Buccaneers on Saturday night and then even playing with the Illawarra Hawks as part of the NBL Blitz on Wednesday, Johny Narkle once again sparkled in the win Geraldton.

He finished with 29 points, five rebounds and two assists on 11/17 shooting from the field with Joshua Keyes adding 18 points, six rebounds, two assists and two blocks, and Akeem Springs 13 points, two assists and two steals.

Ryan Blanchett stepped into the starting role in the absence of Liam Hunt and had 11 points and five rebounds on perfect 5/5 shooting with Verle Williams dishing out 16 assists to go with six points, four rebounds and four steals.

Carter Truslove delivered 18 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals for West Adelaide with Joel Spear adding 14 points, three boards, three assists and two steals, and Riley Real 13 points and four rebounds.

GERALDTON BUCCANEERS 96 (Narkle 29, Keyes 18, Springs 13)

WEST ADELAIDE BEARCATS 71 (Truslove 18, Spear 14, Real 13)