East Spotlight | CoE make it a double win weekend

Featured image: @DiscoveryOne_Photography, Greg Francis

Eliza Shanahan fired in the second half to lead the Centre of Excellence to a dominant 86-53 win over the Albury Wodonga Bandits to cap off a double win NBL1 East weekend both at home and away.

The Centre of Excellence won their first two games of the season but then after a near month-long break they suffered a first loss back on Anzac Day against the Newcastle Falcons.

They hit back the next day against the Maitland Mustangs and then made it consecutive wins on Saturday this weekend with the 21-point road win against the Illawarra Hawks.

They were then back to the Australian Institute of Sport on Sunday to host the Bandits who arrived having beaten the Nationals also on Saturday to start their weekend in Canberra.

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It was a dominant performance from the CoE with them leading by 12 at half-time and then outscoring Albury Wodonga 39 points to 18 in the second half on the way to the 33-point win to improve to 5-1 on the season with the Bandits now 3-4.

The Centre of Excellence made it a double win weekend with Eliza Shanahan finishing with 17 pints, six rebounds and three assists with 7/13 field goal shooting.

Zarra Russell had 12 points to half-time and finished with 15 for the game with three steals, two assists and two rebounds with Olivia Olechnowicz contributing 13 points, seven assists and six boards.

Isabel Smith added eight points and five rebounds, Aspen Crase eight points and five boards, Lily Mapp seven points and six rebounds, and Reece Anticevic seven points, two boards and two assists.

Albury Wodonga had eight players available and each of them played at least 11 minutes in their second game of the weekend in the nation's capital with them not quite able to back up the win over the Nationals.

Emily Lytle did all she could for the Bandits with 27 points, eight rebounds and two assist on 11/26 field goal shooting along with going 3/7 from downtown and 2/3 at the free-throw line.

Unique Thompson added nine points and 15 rebounds, Kijana McCowan seven points, two boards, two assists and two steals, and Emma Mahady five points, two rebounds and two assists.

The Centre of Excellence were fresh off a win over the Illawarra Hawks on Saturday with the Bandits also off a win to the Canberra Nationals, and the CoE started strongly with 27 points to 17 in the first quarter.

The CoE were on top thanks to shooting 10/18 in the first quarter opposed to the 7/14 from Albury Wodonga along with going 5/6 at the foul line to 2/2.

Albury Wodonga were able to stary in touch in the second quarter thanks to a 10-0 scoring run and by half-time Emily Lytle already had 20 of her team's 35 points to be keeping things interesting.

The Centre of Excellence were leading 47-35 still at half-time, though, on the back of a combined 23 points from Zara Russell and Olivia Olechnowicz.

 Things dried up significantly for the Bandits in the third quarter with them only managing seven points on 3/16 shooting while the CoE put up another 15 up the other end to be leading by 20 at three quarter-time.

It was then another 24 points to 11 in the last term from the CoE to romp to the 33-point win against Albury Wodonga who do still head home having split their double weekend.

The Centre of Excellence will be hosting the Central Coast Crusaders now on Saturday with the Bandits back home against the Maitland Mustangs on the same evening.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | ROUND 1

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE 86 (Shanahan 17, Russell 15, Olechnowicz 13)

ALBURY WODONGA BANDITS 53 (Lytle 27, Thompson 9, McCowan 7)