East Grand Final | Star Bruins guards deliver championship

Featured image: Rob Sheeley/@robshots

It's far from a two-woman team but Shyla Heal and Tahlia Tupaea as a back court is as good as it gets in the NBL1 and while co-captain Kiahna Davis-White among others played key roles, they starred as the Bankstown Bruins claimed the NBL1 East championship on Sunday.

The Bruins opened up a 19-point lead by the second quarter and then held out the defending champion Manly Warringah Sea Eagles for the 90-85 Grand Final victory.

All season long it was a fascinating battle between the Norths Bears, Sea Eagles and Bruins to see who would end up being the two teams playing off in the Grand Final.

In the end, Bankstown took a step forward by beating Manly Warringah in the qualifying final before then getting over the Centre of Excellence in the preliminary final while the defending champion Sea Eagles got there by handing the Bears a first loss of 2026 last Saturday night at the buzzer.

That set the stage for a tantalising Grand Final match up on Sunday at Guzman y Gomez Stadium on the Central Coast but Bankstown delivered a scintillating first quarter of 33 points to throw the gauntlet right down to the defending champions.

The Sea Eagles went scoreless for more than five minutes to start the second half to fall down 19 but then scores eight quick points including a pair of triples from preliminary final hero Bree Delaney.

But the Bruins continued to have the answers and never surrendered the lead and held on for the five-point victory to claim a first NBL1 East championship, and a first overall since 2015 and 11th in total dating back to a first in 1997.

Shyla Heal was the standout choice as the Grand Final MVP finishing off the afternoon with 26 points, four rebounds and four assists with 11/20 shooting from the field and 3/6 from the outside for more success in her career after a WNBL championship at the Townsville Fire in 2023.

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The Bruins were playing in a first Grand Final since 2015 and the Sea Eagles in their third of the past four years, but it was Bankstown with the better of the start at the neutral Central Coast venue.

Already by quarter-time and Bankstown were leading by 12 points on the back of scoring 33 thanks to shooting 11/20 from the field with Shyla Heal already up to nine points while co-captain Kiahna Davis-White offered a spark with seven.

The Sea Eagles only shot 4/13 from the field but did stay in some sort of touch thanks to 12/13 free-throw shooting in the opening 10 minutes.

That advantage for the Bruins got out to as much as 19 points in the second quarter as well before Manly Warringah did manage to work back into the Grand Final with a 7-0 run.

They ended up pulling down nine offensive rebounds in the second quarter alone and scored 10 points off those, but they had fallen in love with taking quick three-pointers on offence and it wasn’t working with them going just 3/16 from the outside in the first half.

Manly Warringah were going 18/20 at the foul line but Bankstown were shooting 19/35 from the field to 11/33 and 7/15 from the outside to still be leading 55-43 going into half-time.

That was with Heal already having 19 points with 3/5 three-point shooting by half-time while Davis-White had added 14 points with perfect 6/6 shooting from the field and 2/2 from the outside.

Bankstown then dominated the first half of the third quarter moving out to a 19-point lead with Manly Warringah going scoreless for more than five minutes until finally Bree Delaney hit from the outside.

She soon hit another as part of an 8-0 run as the Sea Eagles stormed back into the Grand Final and they had got back within nine by three quarter-time.

Bankstown were clinging to the 66-57 lead but Heal only added two points in the term and they shot 5/20 as a team with the stage set for a big finish.

The Bruins again started the final period strongly with a 6-2 run but the Sea Eagles came charging back and the Manly chant ringing around the stadium was deafening when Jayda Jansen hit a huge three to make it a three-point game with just over three minutes to play.

Heal then responded for Bankstown before Shalome Dunlop hit what might have been the big shot of her young career from behind the three-point line to push the Bruins back out by eight.

Manly Warringah still kept giving themselves a chance, though, and twice Zoey Miller hit from deep in the final minute to make it a three-point margin, but they couldn’t quite get closer and Tahlia Tupaea sealed the championship at the foul line for the Bruins.

The result means that no women's team has gone back-to-back still since the four straight Bankstown won from 2003-04-05-06.

Fittingly Shyla Heal was named Grand Final MVP but she had plenty of support including from back court partner Tahlia Tupaea 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists with 19/19 free-throw shooting.

Co-captain Kiahna Davis-White ended up with 14 points and four rebounds as well while Shalome Dunlop added 13 points and four boards, and Margot De Freitas 10 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots.

Manly Warringah gave it an almighty crack at going back-to-back with Zoey Miller finishing with 19 points, eight assists, four rebounds and two steals.

Jayda Jansen added 15 points, four rebounds and three assists, Bree Delaney 14 points, five boards and two assists, Alex Delaney 13 points, five rebounds and two assists, Kim Dickinson 13 points and 11 boards, and Sari Mowbray nine points, six rebounds and two steals.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | GRAND FINAL

BANKSTOWN BRUINS 90 (Heal 26, Tupaea 21, Davis-White 14)

MANLY WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES 85 (Miller 19, Jansen 15, B Delaney 14)

Grand Final MVP: Shyla Heal (Bankstown Bruins)