East Spotlight | Sharks make it three straight

Featured image: Slashersau

Sydney Kings NBL star Tyler Robertson put up another 23 points and the Sutherland Sharks made it three consecutive NBL1 East victories with the 80-73 win over the Hills Hornets on Sunday.

It was Sunday afternoon basketball at Hills Basketball Stadium with both teams fresh off Saturday wins with the Hornets beating the Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Spiders to keep their season alive while the Sharks won big at home to the Centre of Excellence.

The Hornets were then leading by 10 points at the end of the first quarter and were still on top by nine at the half, but the home team then managed just six points on 2/17 shooting in the third term.

That saw the Sharks take control and ended up leading by as much as 13 points on the way to the seven-point win to make it three consecutive wins with an 8-6 record while Hills are now 5-10.

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By the end of the game not much separated the two teams with the Sharks shooting at 39 per cent to the 35 from the Hornets with Sutherland going 7/23 from downtown and 13/18 at the foul line to the 11/36 and 10/14 from Hills.

But the Sharks pulled down 14 offensive rebounds and that did help them get up an extra couple of shots and take four more free throws to help in the eventual seven-point victory.

It's now three straight wins for Sutherland with Sydney Kings NBL star Tyler Robertson delivering 23 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals with 4/11 shooting from behind the arc and 9/11 at the charity stripe.

Bailey MacArthur added 14 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals, Luke Jamieson 14 points, 10 boards and two assists, Jason Spurgin 13 points, 13 rebounds, two assists and two blocks, and Harry Raynor seven points and four boards.

Meekness Payne ended up top scoring for the Hornets with 18 points and two rebounds while Saxon Orsini finished with 14 points, eight boards and five assists, and Ben Williams 11 points on 4/4 shooting.

Josh Pain also had eight points and three rebounds, Ned Carr seven points, five boards and two blocks, and Gum Majak seven points, 11 rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots.

Both teams had played on Saturday with the Hornets getting back to winning against the Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Spiders while the Sharks also beat the Centre of Excellence setting up the Sunday match up featuring one team just inside the top eight and another trying to break in.

Sutherland opened up an early five-point lead but then Hills responded with a 9-0 run and then turned that into a 29-19 advantage by quarter-time.

The Hornets were still on top 47-38 by the half-time break with Saxon Orsini having 12 points and Meekness Payne 11 with them shooting 8/20 from downtown while the Sharks went 3/14, but Sutherland did manage 11/13 at the foul line to 7/8 to stay in touch.

Tyler Roberson also had 13 points to half-time for Sutherland and then he had 10 points in the third quarter to outscore the Hornets on his own.

Hills managed just six points in the quarter on 2/17 shooting while the Sharks added 25 points up the other end while shooting 10/21 from the floor and that saw them leading 63-53 by three quarter-time.

Sutherland held on from there for the eventual seven-point victory to end the weekend on a three-match winning streak.

The Hornets will now play host to the Illawarra Hawks on Saturday night while the Sharks will look to keep the momentum going when they remain on the road to the defending champion Canberra Gunners that same evening.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | ROUND 11

HILLS HORNETS 73 (Payne 18, Orsini 14, Williams 11)

SUTHERLAND SHARKS 80 (Robertson 23, Jamieson 14, MacArthur 14)