East Spotlight | CoE beat Mustangs to stay undefeated

Featured image: @floyd.mallon 

The Centre of Excellence ensured they remained undefeated in the NBL1 East after completing a pair of road wins for the Anzac Day long weekend with the 86-69 Sunday victory against the Maitland Mustangs.

The Mustangs were back home at Mojo Homes Centre fresh off beating the Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Spiders on Anzac Day while the CoE played their first game since March 29 and also won on the road against the Newcastle Falcons.

The Centre of Excellence didn’t have the shooting performance they were hoping and were going juts 1/13 from downtown to half-time, but that changed a little in the second half and they were able to build a 19-point lead on the way to the 17-point victory.

The result leaves the CoE on a 4-0 record to start the season with the Mustangs now 2-4 having split their two games over the Anzac Day weekend.

>> EAST SPOTLIGHT | HORNETS BEAT CRUSADERS WITH BIG FINISH

>> EAST SPOTLIGHT | BRUINS WITH TOO MANY WEAPONS FOR COMETS

>> EAST WRAP | MEN'S ROUND 3

The CoE ended up shooting 8/27 from behind the arc with 7/14 in the second half while going 47 per cent overall from the field with the Mustangs managing just 37 per cent along with 4/22 from long-range.

As is usually the case, the job was well spread amongst the Centre of Excellence with five players scoring nine or more points, and nine players out there for at least seven minutes.

Alex Dickeson ended up top-scoring with 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals with 7/18 field goal shooting along with 2/9 from downtown and 5/6 at the free-throw line.

Jai Faale also finished with 14 points, three rebounds and two assists, Antonio Browne 11 points, three steals and two rebounds, Flynn Pavely 10 points and seven boards, Will Hamilton nine points and three rebounds, and Ajak Nyuon six points, eight boards, three steals and two blocked shots.

Will Cranston-Lown top-scored in the loss for Maitland with 20 points with nine assists, three rebounds and two steals on 12/15 shooting from the free-throw line.

Billy Parsons added 17 points, seven rebounds and three steals, Myles Cherry nine points, seven boards and two assists, and Daniel Millburn nine points on 4/6 shooting.

Reyne Smith ended up with 10 points and four assists on 3/16 shooting but he did start to warm up to keep the Mustangs in the contest in the second half although his frustrations did spill over to earn a technical in the fourth quarter too.

Both teams had played on Anzac Day the previous day with the Centre of Excellence returning to action beating the Newcastle Falcons while the Mustangs also won on the road against the Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Spiders to set up the Sunday match up.

The Centre of Excellence did manage to build a six-point lead in the first quarter and were still leading 24-20 by quarter-time on the back of shooting 69 per cent from the floor to the 30 from Maitland.

But the Mustangs did get to the foul line 10 times to three to stay in touch.

While the CoE remained in the lead again the entire second frame, that was never by more than six points with the Mustangs continuing to stay in touch with Billy Parsons not missing a shot on his way to 13 points in the first half.

The CoE only went 1/13 from behind the arc in the opening half with that lone triple made by Flynn Pavely but they went into the break still leading 36-32 despite that.

The Centre of Excellence had some more luck from long-range in the third quarter going 4/9 and that helped them build a nine-point lead by three quarter-time

Then in the last quarter the CoE proved too strong with another 28 points to 28 to end up winning by 17 to make it a double win weekend and improve to 4-0 to start the season.

The Centre of Excellence remain on the road on Saturday against the Illawarra Hawks while the Mustangs are on the road too the same evening against the Bankstown Bruins.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | ANZAC ROUND

MAITLAND MUSTANGS 80 (Cranston-Lown 20, Parsons 17, Smith 10)

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE 86 (Dickeson 21, Faale 14, Browne 11)