Cairns move opens up Basham's Jewels chance

A move to Cairns to play the 2026 NBL1 North season was the best decision Brooke Basham ever made and the confidence she took from that has now translated into a blistering start to life at the Tasmania Jewels in the WNBL.

Up until 2025, Basham had spent all her life playing basketball in Adelaide having started with the Eastern Mavericks and going on to play NBL1 Central with the Forestville Eagles, Norwood Flames and North Adelaide Rockets.

It also led to WNBL opportunities with her hometown Adelaide Lightning, but coming into 2025 and she decided to get the best out of her basketball, it might be time to venture out of her comfort zone and play outside of South Australia.

Not only that, but she wanted to experience different living circumstances and the first step in that journey was to play with the Tokomanawa Queens of New Zealand's Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa competition in 2025.

Then in 2026, she made the leap to head to Far North Queensland to join the Cairns Dolphins and while she made just nine appearances due to Australian Gangurrus commitments and injury, she starred with 21.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.2 steals a game.

It could well have been the best basketball Basham has ever played given the standard of the NBL1 North and it's now led to another huge life and career move by joining the Tasmania Jewels of the WNBL.

She started in their historic first game at a sold out MyState Bank Arena last Thursday night and starred with 19 points, eight rebounds, four steals and three assists with 8/12 field goal shooting in the 103-90 win against the Geelong Venom.

Embracing move to Cairns

But looking back, Basham embraced everything about the move to Cairns in terms of a living and basketball sense, and it's paid off for her.

"The move was so easy for me and obviously leaving my family was hard, but I love North Queensland, I love Cairns, I love the weather, the people and the club was amazing," Basham said.

"The coaches, the players, management have been so incredible and it was a really, really easy transition for me. I absolutely love Cairns and my life there was incredible on and off court so I'm very grateful.

"I feel like it's a higher level of basketball too, and I think the talent is also better, and I even think the resources and professionalism within the clubs here as well feel a bit higher.

"It feels like a bit more of a professional league and I've loved the competition and it is a really good league.

"Obviously I've played in Adelaide a very long time, over 10 years and you just sort of play the same people the same year and the same teams so I really enjoyed trying to learn new players and how new teams play, and their style and stuff. I absolutely loved it, it was so much fun."

Amazing first game for Jewels

Basham was out there to start last Thursday night in the eventual 103-90 victory at MyState Bank Arena for the Jewels against the Geelong Venom where she starred with 19 points, eight rebounds, four steals and three assists on 8/12 shooting from the field.

She couldn’t have imagined a better start, but it didn’t take long for her and the rest of the Jewels to turn their attention to focusing on this Thursday's first away game against the Southside Melbourne Flyers.

"Yeah absolutely (got over the high) and am onto the next job. I think we did a really, really good job of embracing the moment and celebrating our first win, but it's onto the next job already," Basham said.

"We had a day off the next day and then we were straight into training the following day focusing on Flyers. So we are very driven this week for sure."

Emotional all-round occasion

It was an emotional game day all-round for Basham who was surprised at shootaround by an appearance by her mum Robyn and brother Ben who weren’t able to make it the previous day when the rest of the families of the players did their surprise appearance.

It was worth the wait for the 28-year-old and then the emotions spilled over again in the pre-game on Thursday night, but the whole experience of then getting to play in front of a sold out crowd is something she'll treasure forever.

"It was an amazing experience and for me personally, I don’t think I've ever played in front of that many people before especially in an incredible, unique place like MyState. It was incredible, it's hard to put into words," Basham said.

"I think running out for the first time and the intro videos got some of us girls a little bit emotional.

"We were kinda like getting ourselves all back together after that, but I think just running out and hearing the whole what felt like the whole of Tasmania cheering us on was incredible."

Playing at a sold out stadium

Not only could Basham feel the connection the Jewels already have with the 4000-plus people crammed into MyState Bank Arena last Thursday night, but with the whole state of Tasmania which is what makes being part of the team so special.

"We can really feel the connection with the whole community behind us and it's so evident everywhere that we go the support we have from the whole state," she said.

"It's so well-known and we play for the state so it's awesome to be part of."

Quickly refocusing to first home game

Basham had a standout first up performance with the Jewels too on the back of the nine games she played in the NBL1 North with Cairns where she produced 21.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.2 steals on 52 per cent shooting from the field and 42 from the outside.

But she was more focused on the team performance and they couldn’t have clicked better first up to celebrate with the 13-point victory to make it a night to remember for everyone involved.

"Personally it was good, but I thought as a team we were just really, really aggressive," Basham said.

"We were on the front foot from the start and obviously Geelong are a really good team and they did fight back, but I thought we set the tone really aggressively. I think that's our identity moving forwards."

After enjoying that first win at home, the Jewels now hit the road for the first time in the WNBL this Thursday night when they take on the Southside Melbourne Flyers with Basham looking forward to the challenge.

"Southside are going to be super, super competitive and a physical team," Basham said.

"They're also young so I think it's going to be a really good challenge for us but I think we'll do a good job."