North Spotlight | Cairns end regular season with a win

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Leichan Williams put up 23 points in just 18 minutes for Cairns Dolphins as they avoided going into the NBL1 North finals with three straight losses with the 82-68 home win on Friday night.

The Dolphins were playing their last game of the regular season at Trinity Ford Stadium and having lost their past two games after a 9-0 start to have dropped behind Logan Thunder into second position.

They were still guaranteed a top two finish coming into the last round but the Cyclones arrived on a three-game winning streak and were keen to continue to finish their season with momentum despite being out of contention.

The scores were all level by quarter-time and Cairns were only leading by five at half-time but the Dolphins then took over and held Rockhampton to just nine points in the third term with the home team from there going on to score the 14-point win and finish the regular season at 13-3 in second place.

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Cairns finished their last regular season game shooting 42 per cent from the field to 32 from Rockhampton with Leichan Williams proving quite the weapon down low with 23 points and seven rebounds on 8/10 field goal shooting and 7/8 at the foul line.

Brooke Basham added 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals with 4/8 three-point shooting fresh off signing in the WNBL for the Tasmania Jewels.

Mia Loyd also had another 13 points, nine rebounds and nine assists for the Dolphins, Alessandra Burke nine points, six boards and two assists, and Teyla Evans seven points and 10 rebounds.

The Cyclones are now 5-10 with one game left in their season with Shanique Lucas finishing with 21 points, six rebounds and three assists on 5/11 shooting from the outside.

Emily Kiser also had 19 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and two steals, Akaysha Muggeridge 13 points and three assists, and Gracie Stugart eight points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Even though the Dolphins had already locked in a top two finish, they didn’t want to go into the playoffs with a three-game losing run ahead of hosting the Cyclones but by quarter-time the scores were all locked at 19-19.

Cairns did work on top with an 11-0 run in the second quarter and on the back of that went into half-time leading 46-39 with Mia Loyd already having 11 points, six rebounds and six assists, and Brooke Basham 10 points, five boards and four assists.

Leichan Williams was top scoring with 15 points with the Dolphins shooting 51 per cent to the 33 from the Cyclones but the visitors stayed close with the 15 free-throw attempts and 15 points each from Emily Kiser and Shanique Lucas.

Rockhampton managed just the nine points in the entire third quarter on 4/18 shooting and even though Cairns only managed 15 points themselves on 4/17 shooting but they went 7/9 from the foul line to be leading 61-50 by three quarter-time.

The Dolphins remained in control from there for the 14-point win to ensure they do enter the finals at least on winning note.

That's the end of the regular season now for Cairns as they finish on the 13-3 record with Rockhampton to back up on Saturday to end their season against the Townsville Flames.

NBL1 NORTH 2026 SEASON | ROUND 14

CAIRNS DOLPHINS 82 (Williams 23, Basham 18, Loyd 13)

ROCKHAMPTON CYCLONES 68 (Lucas 21, Kiser 19, Muggeridge 13)