East Spotlight | Gunners just manage to avoid fourth straight

Featured image: @immyleeonsports

The Canberra Gunners were looking set for a fourth straight defeat as NBL1 East reigning champions when down 19 to the new-look Centre of Excellence, but Will Mayfield fired in the second half to help them to the eventual 76-73 win.

It was the first of two games between the Canberra rivals in the space of 24 hours on Thursday night at the Australian Institute of Sport with the CoE arriving having won nine straight matches to be on top of the NBL1 East.

However, they were now without the likes of Alex Dickeson and Jai Fa'ale who played a match winning role each last weekend but still the Centre of Excellence opened up a 19-point lead in the second quarter.

They were still up 15 at half-time before Canberra responded even without Glenn Morison with an 18-0 run and then they held on in a thrilling finish for the three-point victory to avoid a fourth straight loss.

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The Gunners are now 9-3 as defending champions with the steadying win despite shooting just 36 per cent from the field but they did have six extra free-throw attempts along with four more shots on the back of forcing the CoE into 15 turnovers.

Will Mayfield had a huge second half to show the way in the win for Canberra finishing with 23 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals with 4/11 three-point shooting.

Will Rice also came up big with the Gunners +20 in his 27 minutes on his way to 17 points and three rebounds.

Evan Wardlow added 14 points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals, Cameron Pender nine points, 11 boards and three steals, and Angus Byatt seven points and three rebounds.

The Centre of Excellence couldn’t quite complete the win with their new-look team for the second half of the season with Will Hamilton ending up scoring 16 points, three rebounds and two steals.

Antonio Browne top scored with 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists with 3/4 three-point shooting while Ajak Nyuon delivered 14 points and 10 boards, Isaac Riddle seven points and six rebounds, Curtis Evic six points and nine boards, and Yahya Basaran six points and five rebounds.

There was plenty to be fascinated about with the contest with the new-look team suddenly at the Centre of Excellence and Canberra trying to avoid another defeat, and it was the CoE who started the better with 22 points to 15 in the opening term.

Ajak Nyuon was already up to seven points and four rebounds with his team shooting 9/15 to Canberra's 4/19 while also pulling down 16 rebounds to four on the way to the seven-point advantage after the first 10 minutes.

The Centre of Excellence then took over the game in the second quarter opening up a 19-point lead and they were still up 45-30 by half-time with Antonio Browne having 13 points and Will Hamilton 11.

The CoE were still shooting 56 per cent by half-time and Canberra were just going at 29 with Will Rice doing his best to keep them in the game with 10 of those 30 points with 3/6 shooting while the rest of the team went 7/29.

Canberra were staring right down the barrel of a fourth straight loss as defending champions coming into the second half but they shot out of the blocks with an 18-0 run to turn that 15-point deficit suddenly into their own four-point lead in the finish.

The Gunners had 26 points in that third quarter with 8/19 shooting and 7/7 at the foul line with Will Mayfield firing to be up to 17 points by three quarter-time for his team to be leading 56-55.

The Gunners did go on to lead by seven in the final quarter but the Centre of Excellence responded to get back in front by four themselves to set up a big finish.

Inside the last two and-a-half minutes, Mayfield and Angus Byatt for Canberra, and Isaac Riddle and Browne for the CoE traded three-pointers and in the end the Gunners sealed the deal with a strong finish after an offensive rebound while Hamilton missed two chances to force overtime.

The two teams will do it all again now on Friday evening at Southern Cross Stadium in Tuggeranong heading into the King's Birthday long weekend.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | HERITAGE ROUND

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE 73 (Browne 19, Hamilton 16, Nyuon 14)

CANBERRA GUNNERS 76 (Mayfield 23, Rice 17, Wardlow 14)