East Spotlight | Spurgin the hero as Sharks beat Bears

Featured image: @larasullivanphotography

Not even the Norths Bears could stop the charging Sutherland Sharks who made it nine straight NBL1 East wins with Jason Spurgin hitting the late winner for the 63-62 victory that keeps the top spot battle alive on the last day.

It had all the makings of a finals preview match up at Sutherland Basketball Stadium on Saturday night with the Bears arriving still in top spot having won their past three matches while the Sharks are the hottest team in the NBL1 East.

Sutherland made it eight straight wins on Friday night beating the Penrith Panthers by 49 points and they maintained a chance to finish as high as third ahead of hosting Norths.

The Bears did need to win as well to avoid the risk of conceding top spot to the Illawarra Hawks, and it was a low-scoring and tense grind the entire way with no love lost between the two outfits.

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Norths were narrowly leading 17-15 by the end of the first quarter despite shooting 1/9 from beyond the arc to the 0/4 from Sutherland.

The Sharks then took charge in the second period scoring 19 points themselves on 5/9 shooting and 8/10 at the foul line, but holding the Bears to just seven points over the 10 minutes with 2/21 shooting from the floor and 0/14 from the foul line.

That saw Sutherland leading 34-24 by half-time with Tyler Robertson up to 13 points while the Bears were going 1/23 from long-range over the opening 20 minutes.

The Sharks were still leading 48-41 by the end of the third quarter but finally the Bears started to find their shooting touch and three balls to Fabijan Krslovic and Lachie Bofinger had them back within a point with three minutes to play.

Krslovic then hit another from downtown with just under two minutes on the clock only for Lochlan Hutchison to respond with two free throws and Matthew Wacher scored to return Norths to the lead inside the final minute.

The lone score from there came with 5.9 seconds to go and after running down the clock, Hutchison found Robertson on the baseline who found the rolling Jason Spurgin for the game winning layup.

The win is a ninth in-a-row now for Sutherland who will finish the regular season with a 14-6 record and move up into third position as a result ahead of the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.

The fact that both teams combined for just 125 highlights what a physical defensive battle it was with Sutherland shooting 37 per cent to the 32 from the Bears but Norths did get up an extra 17 shot attempts with 11 offensive rebounds and forcing the Sharks into 19 turnovers.

The Bears went 6/14 from downtown in the second half to end up shooting 7/37 for the game while Sutherland went 1/16 but they did manage 20/24 at the free-throw line to 7/12 from Norths which was crucial in the eventual win.

Tyler Robertson delivered 25 points and three rebounds with 10/11 free-throw shooting in the win for the Sharks with his Sydney Kings NBL teammate adding nine points, nine boards, two assists and two blocked shots.

Lochlan Hutchison also had 10 points, four steals, two rebounds and two assists, and Luke Jamieson seven points, 18 boards, two assists and two steals.

Norths now finish the regular season with a 16-4 record and they will only remain in first place should the Illawarra Hawks lost to the Penrith Panthers to close the regular season on Sunday.

Fabijan Krslovic returned to the line-up for the Bears and delivered 15 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals with 3/6 shooting from the outside.

Matthew Wacher added 13 points, four assists and three rebounds, Iggy Mitchell 11 points, seven boards and two assists, Hunter Goodrick 10 points, 10 rebounds and five steals, and Lachie Bofinger seven points and six boards.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | ROUND 15

SUTHERLAND SHARKS 63 (Robertson 25, Hutchison 10, Spurgin 9)

NORTHS BEARS 62 (Krslovic 15, Wacher 13, Mitchell 11)