East Spotlight | CoE make it five straight men's wins

Featured image: @DiscoveryOne_Photography, Greg Francis

Jai Faale and Alex Dickeson combined for 35 points as the Centre of Excellence continued their NBL1 East winning ways on Sunday with the 91-72 win despite 28 points and seven triples for the Penrith Panthers from Brodie Schwarzer.

Both teams arrived at Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium having played on Saturday with the Panthers losing by just 10 points to the on-fire Illawarra Hawks while the CoE started their road double beating the Hills Hornets by 19.

Penrith started well with five threes in the first quarter to be leading by six but the longer the game went the CoE worked their way on top to be leading by five at half-time, by 13 at three quarter-time and to end up securing the 19-point victory.

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The win is a fifth in-a-row for the Centre of Excellence as they improve to a 9-1 record with the major difference in the game being their 32 free-throw attempts to 14, and 16 offensive rebounds to five.

Once again the strength in the win for the Centre of Excellence was their depth of contributors with Jai Faale top scoring with 18 points, four rebounds and two assists.

Alex Dickeson also had another 17 points, six rebounds and four assists, Antonio Browne 13 points and five assists, Curtis Evic nine points and six rebounds, Luke Paul nine points, three boards and three assists, and Isaac Riddle eight points and six rebounds.

Brodie Schwarzer produced an impressive performance for Penrith despite the loss with 28 points, two assists and two steals with 7/9 three-point shooting.

Simun Krpez also had 12 points, two rebounds and two steals, Jack Ticic nine points and five boards, Angue Ole nine points, six rebounds and three assists, and Jett Hickson nine points, four boards and four assists.

Both teams had played on Saturday to open the round with the Panthers losing at home in a competitive showing to the Illawarra Hawks while the CoE had a hard earned win to start the road double against the Hills Hornets.

After the Centre of Excellence had an early four-point lead, Penrith went on a 7-0 scoring run and had their own six-point advantage and were still leading 23-20 by quarter-time.

Brodie Schwarzer and Jett Hickson combined for 16 of those 23 points for the Panthers with them shooting 5/9 from three-point range to the 1/4 from the CoE.

Keeping the Centre of Excellence in the contest was their 7/11 free-throw shooting with Penrith not getting to the stripe once.

The CoE were able to work on top in the second frame and ended up outscoring the Panthers 24 points to 16 with the home team only managing to shoot 2/11 from three-point range for the quarter.

That had the Centre of Excellence leading 44-39 by half-time with 19 free-throw attempts to just four from Penrith.

The CoE then kept that momentum going in the third quarter with their lead getting out to 18 points when they had completed a 13-0 run.

They ended up outscoring Penrith 22 points to 14 in the quarter to be leading 66-53 by three quarter-time before another 25 points to 19 in the last term on the way to the 19-point victory to make it five straight.

The Centre of Excellence remain on the road on Saturday to take on the Norths Bears while the Panthers will also be away to the Central Coast Crusaders next Sunday afternoon.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | ROUND 7

PENRITH PANTHERS 72 (Schwarzer 28, Ole 9, Ticic 9, Hickson 9)

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE 91 (Faale 18, Dickeson 17, Browne 13)