West Recap | National Finals Day 2

Jewel Williams and Jessie Edwards starred as Cockburn Cougars kept their perfect season alive to reach NBL1 National Finals championship game as did Geraldton Buccaneers with Akeem Springs and Joshua Keyes brilliant for the NBL1 West champions.

Both the Cougars and Buccaneers won the NBL1 West Grand Finals last Saturday night at RAC Arena and now will have a chance to become National Champions in the Final games that will be played in Canberra on Sunday.

Cockburn will take on the Knox Raiders in the women's decider starting at 9am Perth time. Making things extra interesting is that the Cougars are looking for a perfect season but the Raiders ended the unbeaten run of Geelong United in the NBL1 South Grand Final.

Geraldton will then play the NBL1 East's Canberra Gunners in the men's decider who will be the hometown favourites at Southern Cross Stadium. The men's Final begins at 11:30am Perth time.

WEST RECAP | NATIONAL FINALS DAY 1

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 (89) defeated Logan Thunder (60)

The perfect NBL1 season of the Cockburn Cougars has continued with the NBL1 West champions advancing to the Final at the National Finals improving to 25-0 in 2025 with the 89-60 win against the Logan Thunder.

The Cougars completed a perfect season in the NBL1 West by going 20-0 in the regular season before beating the Rockingham Flames, Perry Lakes Hawks and Warwick Senators on the way to winning championship last Saturday night at RAC Arena.

Cockburn then arrived in Canberra for the National Finals as the only undefeated team left from around the country and they had most of their championship stars available aside from import big Daniel Raber and college-bound teenage star Amelia Corasaniti.

The Cougars then started their National Finals campaign beating the NBL1 Central's Woodville Warriors by 47 points on Friday as they prepared to take on Logan on Saturday for a spot in Sunday's Final.

The Thunder lost the opening game of the NBl1 North Grand Final Series against the Southern Districts Spartans before hitting back to win the last two games to clinch the championship and a spot in Canberra.

Logan came from behind to beat the Waverley Falcons then on Friday to set up the match up on Saturday against the Cougars with a place in the Final on the line.

Logan were only missing Amandine Toi from their championship team but Cockburn worked on top in the first quarter and by quarter-time held a 28-14 advantage with captain Jewel Williams setting up play expertly and her long-time teammate Jessie Edwards dominating inside.

That lead grew for the Cougars out to 21 points in the second quarter and by half-time they were leading 51-34 on the back of shooting 20/40 from the field to the 13/32 from the Thunder. The only thing letting Cockburn down was 4/12 free-throw shooting.

Logan did try to mount a fightback in the third quarter and even did outscore Cockburn 18 points to 17, but they couldn’t ever get close enough to strike and the Cougars took back control in the fourth frame.

Cockburn ended up scoring the 29-point win to make it 25-0 on 2025 now as they book in a spot in the National Finals decider on Sunday against the Knox Raiders. Ironically, it was Knox who ended Geelong United's unbeaten season in the NBL1 South Grand Final.

The Cougars dominated the possession game with 13 extra shots and 11 more free throws than Logan thanks to pulling down 26 offensive rebounds and forcing the Thunder into 18 turnovers.

Jessie Edwards and Jewel Williams have played most of their careers together starting as juniors at the Kalamunda Eastern Suns before that's where they started their SBL/NBL1 West careers.

They have now both settled with the Cougars and are two-time championship winners as a result, and both were dominant presences in the win on Saturday.

Edwards dominated inside with 27 points, 11 rebounds, four steals, three blocks and two assists on 13/22 shooting from the field despite going 1/6 at the foul line with Williams ending up with nine points, 13 assists, four rebounds and three steals.

Gun import Sarah Mortensen has been crucial in the 2023 and 2025 championships for Cockburn, and she put up 20 points, eight rebounds and two assists with Steph Gorman contributing 10 points, two boards and two assists, and Grand Final MVP Ruby Porter nine points, five steals, three rebounds and two assists.

The 2025 season is now over for Logan who will still be able to celebrate their NBL1 North championship with Leah Scott providing another 16 points, 15 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots despite 5/16 shooting.

Vahayliah Seumanutafa also finished with 12 points and two rebounds for the Thunder with Bride Kennedy-Hopoate contributing eight points, Sinai Foai seven points, and Mikaela Cann seven points, five assists, three rebounds and two steals despite also having nine turnovers.

COCKBURN COUGARS 89 (Edwards 27, Mortensen 20, Gorman 10)

LOGAN THUNDER 60 (Scott 16, Seumanutafa 12, Kennedy-Hopoate 8)

MEN

Geraldton Buccaneers (92) defeated Sandringham Sabres (84)

The shorthanded Sandringham Sabres put up a good fight to be on top for almost the first 35 minutes but the Geraldton Buccaneers wore them down in the finish to book in a place in the championship game at the NBL1 National Finals with the 92-84 win.

Both teams came into the National Finals having won their respective conference championships and had mixed results in Canberra on Friday ahead of their battle for a spot in the Final.

Geraldton won the NBL1 West Grand Final at RAC Arena in Perth last Saturday night before then opening their National Finals campaign with the 25-point victory against the undermanned West Adelaide Bearcats.

Sandringham won the NBL1 South Grand Final against the Melbourne Tigers two weeks ago but were well short of full strength coming into the National Finals with Ben Ayre, Fabijan Krslovic, Dane Pineau and CJ Asuncion-Byrd all unavailable.

Despite that, the Sabres put in a strong showing on Friday before giving up the last four points to lose by one to the Canberra Gunners, but as the loser with the smallest margin they still stayed alive in the race to Sunday's Final.

Geraldton were also missing their three-time championship winning hero Liam Hunt, but were closer to full strength including the presence of new Illawarra Hawks development player Johny Narkle who had another 29 points on Friday against West Adelaide.

Despite the Sabres playing with a seven-man rotation that included playing-coach Dave Barlow, they started well to be leading 29-24 by quarter-time on the back of shooting 11/22 from the field to the 9/19 from the Buccaneers.

That lead for Sandringham got out to 11 points in the second quarter as well and the NBL1 South championship were still leading by the half-time break 42-41.

Again the Sabres managed to open up a 10-point lead in the third quarter but the Buccaneers did manage to fight back with a 9-0 run with Sandringham clinging to the 65-63 advantage by three quarter-time.

Akeem Springs then continued his big performance for Geraldton by tying scores up to open the fourth quarter and while the Buccaneers had the more bodies available, the Sabres just refused to lie down with a spot in Sunday's Final on the line.

Malith Machar pulled the Sabres back within a point with 2:30 to play when he hit a three ball, but Sandringham wouldn’t score again as Geraldton took control including five free throws from the dynamite Verle Williams was aggressive attacking the basket.

Joshua Keyes also had a nice finish on the back of an offensive rebound and the Buccaneers secured the eight-point win thanks to scoring the last seven points in the final two minutes to book in a place in the championship game at the National Finals on Sunday.

Akeem Springs was the star of the win for Geraldton with 30 points, five rebounds and two steals including hitting 4/8 from three-point territory.

Fellow import Joshua Keyes also had 22 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots with the dynamic Verle Williams producing 14 points, three assists and two boards.

Ryan Blanchett is playing a key role in the absence of Liam Hunt and he had 12 points and six rebounds with Johny Narkle delivering another 10 points, nine boards and eight assists.

Three-time championship winning 544-game NBL1 West veteran enforcer Mat Wundenberg also had 12 rebounds for Geraldton.

It was a brave performance from Sandringham missing so many of their stars and while they lost both games at the National Finals, they led for the majority of both appearances against Canberra and now Geraldton.

Malith Machar finished with 29 points and four rebounds with 5/13 three-point shooting with Tom Koppens delivering 17 points, 12 boards and two assists, Elliott Brown 13 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals, Dave Barlow nine points and two assists, and Sammy Cartwright eight points, nine rebounds and three assists.

GERALDTON BUCCANEERS 92 (Springs 30, Keyes 22, Williams 14)

SANDRINGHAM SABRES 84 (Machar 29, Koppens 17, Brown 13)