East Spotlight | Sea Eagles soar back in GF rematch

Featured image: @flicksby.tessa

The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles took out their frustrations from losing for the first time in 27 NBL1 East games the previous night by dominating the Centre of Excellence in Sunday's Grand Final rematch for the 80-67 victory.

The Sea Eagles won the last 19 games of 2025 on the way to beating the CoE in the Grand Final but their winning run was snapped at 26 at the hands of Shyla Heal and the Bankstown Bruins on Saturday night.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Manly Warringah had to head to Canberra on Sunday morning to take on the Centre of Excellence at the Australian Institute of Sport who were coming off their own big win in the same venue on Saturday against the Central Coast Crusaders.

After the CoE were leading by a point at quarter-time, Manly Warringah took control holding the home team to 21 points on 6/28 shooting over the second and third quarters.

That helped the Sea Eagles build a 23-point lead and to complete the bounce back 13-point victory to end the weekend on an 8-1 record and having done so without Josie Bulman while the Centre of Excellence are now 6-2.

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It was a strong bounce back performance from Manly Warringah especially at the defensive end along with going 23/25 at the foul line, pulling down 14 offensive rebounds and having just the eight turnovers.

They also did it without Josie Bulman once again with Zoey Miller outstanding with 26 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals with 11/11 foul shooting.

Alex Delaney also delivered 18 points and 10 rebounds, Sari Mowbray 15 points and three boards, Kim Dickinson 14 points, five rebounds and three steals, and Josie Radan four points, five boards and two steals.

The Centre of Excellence were never really able to cope with the intense pressure applied from a desperate Sea Eagles and they ended up shooting 38 per cent from the field with 8/23 from downtown and by having 16 turnovers for the game.

Olivia Olechnowicz finished with 17 points and eight rebounds with 4/7 three-point shooting while Zara Russell contributed nine points and two boards, and Aspen Crase nine points and three rebounds.

Not only was it a Grand Final rematch but it had an added sense of intrigue with the Sea Eagles having lost their first game in more than a year the previous evening against the Bankstown Bruins.

They then had to make the road trip to Canberra on Sunday morning and again Manly Warringah found themselves behind by quarter-time with the Centre of Excellence narrowly leading 18-17 on the back of shooting 6/17 to the 5/19 from the Sea Eagles.

Manly Warringah did open up the second quarter going on a 9-2 run to work on top and by half-time that saw the defending champs leading 38-30 with Alex Delaney and Zoey Miller combining for 21 of their points.

The Sea Eagles were still only shooting 32 per cent from the field and 3/15 from deep but it was a real struggle for CoE against the pressure of Manly Warringah and they were only going at 24 per cent at the half having made just 2/16 in the second period for the 12 points.

The Sea Eagles continued to do a tremendous job putting the clamps on the Centre of Excellence holding them to just the 11 points again in the third term with them shooting 4/12 and just 2/6 at the foul line.

Manly Warringah scored another 25 points up the other and by three quarter-time Miller had already compiled 22 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the defending champs to be leading 63-41.

The CoE did find a bit more offence in the last quarter and scored 26 points having had just 41 in the first three quarters but it didn’t stop the bounce back performance from the Sea Eagles who went on to win by 13 points.

The Centre of Excellence are on the road next weekend against the Hills Hornets and Penrith Panthers while the Sea Eagles are also away to the Sydney Comets on Saturday.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | ROUND 6

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE 67 (Olechnowicz 17, Russell 9, Crase 9)

MANLY WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES 80 (Miller 26, Delaney 18, Mowbray 15)