East Finals | Bruins knock off defending champs

The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are now going to have to defend their NBL1 East championship the hard way after Shyla Heal and Tahlia Tupaea combined for 63 points and nine three-pointers in 91-82 qualifying final victory for Bankstown Bruins.

It always shaped as a tantalising first up finals match up at Northern Beaches Indoor Sports Centre with the Sea Eagles finishing second again at the end of the regular season at 18-2 on the back of their 19-game winning streak that led to the 2025 championship.

The Bruins came to life once again this season once Heal was into the line-up and went on an 11-game winning streak before finishing in third position at 16-4 to set up the qualifying final match up with the Sea Eagles with a home preliminary final on the line.

Heal did start strongly with nine points in the first quarter including making both three-point attempts and that saw them leading 29-24 by quarter-time with 6/8 three-point shooting despite the combined 19 points for Manly Warringah from Zoey Miller and Jayda Jansen.

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That lead got out to 14 points for Bankstown in the second quarter and it was still a 12-point advantage by half-time with Heal already up to 19 points with them shooting 8/15 as a team from the outside to the 2/11 from the Sea Eagles.

Manly Warringah fired back in the third quarter and the defending champions put up 29 points to 19 and even found themselves back in front on the back of shooting 11/20 from the field and 4/6 from beyond the arc.

Bankstown were still clinging to the 66-64 lead by three quarter-time and then the Sea Eagles drew back level again early in the fourth term only for the Bruins to take charge once more.

They scored seven straight points to open up a 12-point lead again and this time they wouldn’t surrender it going on to score the nine-point victory to book their place in a home preliminary final.

Bankstown ended up shooting 13/30 from beyond the arc with Shyla Heal and Tahlia Tupaea combining to go 9/18 between them.

Heal finished with 34 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists while Tupaea delivered 29 points, six boards and three assists.

Margot De Freitas also had 14 points, five rebounds and two assists, and Shalome Dunlop 10 points, five boards and two steals.

The Sea Eagles have earned themselves a double chance and will now host the Newcastle Falcons in a fascinating qualifying final match up next Sunday afternoon.

Kim Dickinson finished the evening with 20 points, 12 rebounds and two assists for Manly Warringah with Zoey Miller adding 19 points, five assist, four boards and two steals.

Alex Delaney also had 18 points, five rebounds and two assists with 4/7 shooting from the outside, and Jayda Jansen 16 points, five boards and three assists.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | QUALIFYING FINAL

MANLY WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES 82 (Dickinson 20, Miller 19, A Delaney 18)

BANKSTOWN BRUINS 91 (Heal 34, Tupaea 29, De Freitas 14)