East Spotlight | Spurgin shines as Sharks keep winning

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With Sydney Kings NBL pair Jason Spurgin and Tyler Robertson combining for another 42 points, the Sutherland Sharks made it six straight NBL1 East wins to continue to surge beating the Inner West Bulls 97-69.

The Sharks arrived at Concord Recreational Centre having won their past five matches including on Saturday against the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles while the Bulls were at home and trying to arrest a two-game sliding including on Saturday to the Newcastle Falcons.

Sutherland continue to make a charge towards the top four as well while Inner West are trying to stay in top eight contention, but the Sharks got on top early and never looked back.

The Sharks were already leading by 15 points in the first quarter before that got out to 23 in the second period, 30 in the third and 33 in the fourth.

Sutherland went on to win by 28 and make it six wins on the trot to improve to an 11-6 record with the Bulls now slipping to 8-10 with losing the past three matches.

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Sutherland kept their impressive momentum going and finished up shooting 51 per cent from the field to 34 from Inner West along with collecting 52 rebounds to 32 for the game and having 24 assists to 13.

Sydney Kings NBL centre Jason Spurgin had all 26 of his points to three quarter-time and only played 25 minutes while also having seven rebounds with 11/15 field goal shooting.

Harrison Raynor added 16 points, four rebounds and four assists with 3/6 three-point shooting, Tyler Robertson 16 points, six assists and five boards, Ryan Abbott nine points, seven rebounds, three assists and three blocks, and Lochlan Hutchison seven points, seven assists, five boards and four steals.

Inner West continued to slide out of the playoff hunt with Jasper Rentoy top scoring with 16 points, four assists, three rebounds and three steals with Kobe Shannon adding 13 points and five boards, Acuel Deng nine points and two rebounds, and Louis Bleechmore nine points and three steals.

Both teams were fresh off playing the previous day with the Sharks beating the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles while the Bulls went down to the Newcastle Falcons, and it was a flying start from Sutherland.

With Jason Spurgin putting up 11 points, Sutherland ended up scoring 11 straight points to go up 15 and to be still in front 25-12 by quarter-time on the back of shooting 10/19 from the field to just 4/18 from the Bulls.

That lead got out to as much as 23 points in the second frame and they went into half-time on top 55-38 with Spurgin up to 18 points on 8/10 shooting while as a team the Sharks were still shooting 54 per cent to the 36 from Inner West.

Spurgin then had another eight points in the third quarter and Sutherland outscored Inner West 28 points to 16 once more with the lead out to 83-54 by three quarter-time.

The two teams then just combined for 29 points in the last quarter with Inner West scoring 15 and Sutherland 14 with the Sharks going on to keep their momentum going with the 28-point victory.

The Bulls are now still at home next Saturday against the league-leading Norths Bears while the Sharks are at home to the Illawarra Hawks in another tantalising match up.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | FIRST NATIONS ROUND

INNER WEST BULLS 69 (Rentoy 16, Shannon 13, Deng 9, Bleechmore 9)

SUTHERLAND SHARKS 97 (Spurgin 26, Raynor 16, Robertson 16)