North Spotlight | Cairns hit back from first 2026 loss

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The Cairns Dolphins faced a real prospect of a double loss weekend after starting NBL1 North season 9-0 but they raced out to a 24-6 opening to set the tone for the eventual 90-81 victory against the Mackay Meteorettes.

The Dolphins won their first nine games of the season by an average of 19.6 points but that streak came to an end in Townsville on Friday night with the loss to the Flames.

They then faced a big challenge again less than 24 hours later taking on the third placed Meteorettes at Mackay Basketball Stadium.

But stung from tasting a first defeat of the season the night before, Cairns shot out of the blocks with that 24-6 start and ended up building a 26-point first half lead.

However, Mackay fired back and drew back level early in the fourth quarter only for Cairns to respond and end up securing the nine-point win to avoid a double loss weekend.

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Cairns now finish their double on the road this weekend with a 10-1 record for the season with Mackay now slipping to 8-3 with the home defeat.

While the Dolphins did end up shooting 11/27 to 6/27 from three-point range, the major difference came at the foul like with Cairns going 25/27 for the game to juts 9/11 from Mackay even on their home floor.

Cairns got the bounce back response they were looking for following Friday night's loss in Townsville with Mia Loyd just missing a triple double and ending up with 19 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.

Teyla Evans also had 19 points, three rebounds and three assists, Taryn Bond 19 points, six boards, five assists and two steals, Summah Evans 18 points and five steals with 3/5 three-point shooting, and Leichan Williams nine points, six rebounds and two assists.

Mackay couldn’t quite secure a third straight win to now be 8-3 on the season with Monique Bobongie delivering 26 points, four rebounds and four assists with 4/11 shooting from behind the three-point arc.

Cheyenne Bobongie also had 12 points, 11 rebounds and four assists, Nikita Muscat 10 points and three rebounds, and Charli Kenny eight points, four boards and three assists.

Cairns were in unfamiliar territory coming off the loss the night before after starting the season 9-0 and that was bad news for the Meteorettes with the Dolphins racing out of the blocks with 31 points to 12 in the opening quarter.

That included a stunning 24-6 start with Cairns shooting at 67 per cent for the first quarter with 5/8 from beyond the arc and Taryn Bond scored 10 of those points with Mia Loyd already having nine points, five assists and four rebounds.

Mackay shot just 4/20 in comparison before the Cairns lead blew out to 26 points in the second quarter, and they were still on top 53-33 going into half-time with Loyd up to 17 points while Summah Evans had 13 and Bond remained on 10.

Monique Bobongie did have 11 points for the Meteorettes but her team also had 11 turnovers and shot at just 36 per cent to the 50 from Cairns in the first half, and made just 2/13 from downtown to 7/17.

Mackay then made a real game of it with 25 points in the third quarter with 11/21 field goal shooting even while only going 1/5 from deep as they limited Cairns to just the eight points on 4/11 shooting with eight turnovers.

That cut the lead of the Dolphins to just three points by three quarter-time but the visitors pulled away again in the last quarter after Mackay managed to draw level to avoid a double loss weekend with the nine-point victory.

Cairns will return home to host the Ipswich Force on Friday night while Mackay is on the road to the Rockhampton Cyclones next Saturday.

NBL1 NORTH 2026 SEASON | ROUND 10

MACKAY METEORETTES 81 (M Bobongie 26, C Bobongie 12, Muscat 10)

CAIRNS DOLPHINS 90 (Loyd 19, Evans 19, Bond 19)