South Spotlight | Keilor send message beating Sabres

Featured image: Mitchell Barlow

Keilor Thunder made a blistering start and with Maddy Rocci threatening another triple double and Tess Heal and Issie Bourne starring, they knocked off the NBL1 South leading Sandringham Sabres 82-63 on their home floor.

The Sabres were back home at Southern Basketball Stadium looking to maintain their hold on top position having won their past 10 matches as they hosted a Keilor team also having won their last couple to have started to build some momentum.

It was Keilor who totally dominated the first half holding the Sabres to just nine points in the first quarter and 19 for the opening half on just shooting 8/31 shooting and with 10 turnovers.

Heal had 17 of the 35 points to half-time for Keilor with them having led by as much as 18 points and not even a Steph Reid half-court bomb on three quarter-time could change the tide of the evening.

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Keilor closed the deal on the eventual 19-point victory which is their third win in-a-row to improve to a 10-5 record while Sandringham's 10-game winning run comes to an end for them to now be 12-2 after a first home defeat of 2026.

Keilor scored the scored despite having 19 turnovers but they shot 48 per cent from the field and 11/27 from downtown opposed to the 35 per cent overall from Sandringham with the Sabres only hitting 3/24 from beyond the arc.

Maddy Rocci played all 40 minutes of the game and had a huge say in the result just missing out on a triple double on her way to 10 assists, nine points and eight rebounds.

Issie Bourne also finished with 23 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three blocks while going 3/6 from behind the three-point line with Tess Heal shooting 3/5 from deep for 21 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Tess Barnes also had 18 points on 4/4 three-point shooting.

Madi Ryan finished with 15 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals for the Sabres with Lucy Cochrane adding 15 points, five boards and three steals, and Steph Reid 14 points, five rebounds and three steals.

Keilor have been building once the dynamic duo of Maddy Rocci and Issie Bourne have been reunited and they were up for the challenge against the league-leading Sandringham right from the outset.

Keilor scored 13 straight points in the first quarter and were leading 24-9 by quarter-time including scoring 14 points in the paint to just four.

The lead for the Thunder grew to as much as 18 points in the second period as well and with both teams only combining for 21 points, it was Keilor remaining in control leading 35-19 going into the half-time break.

That included Tess Heal being up to 17 points already on 7/11 shooting from the field while as a team Keilor were going 44 per cent to just 26 from Sandringham who managed only 19 points on their home floor in the first 20 minutes.

The Sabres tried to work their way back into the contest in the third quarter and a half-court buzzer beater from Steph Reid helped that cause to give the home team momentum heading into three quarter-time and cutting the Keilor lead back to 11 points.

But Keilor took charge once again in the final period with another 30 points to 22 on the way to the eventual 19-point victory to put themselves right back in the top four hunt with the third successive victory.

The Sabres will now attempt to bounce back next weekend in their road trip to Tasmania while Keilor will look for a fourth straight win on Sunday on the road to the Casey Cavaliers.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | ROUND 10

SANDRINGHAM SABRES 63 (Ryan 15, Cochrane 15, Reid 14)

KEILOR THUNDER 82 (Bourne 23, Heal 21, Barnes 18)