South Spotlight | New-look Braves impress first up

Featured image: @MitchBarlow7

The new-look Bendigo Braves built a 27-point lead in an impressive first up NBL1 South showing for 2026 before a strong finish at home from the Ballarat Miners to limit the final score to 89-79.

Both country powers are considerably new-look outfits coming into the 2026 NBL1 South season and were looking to get off to a winning start on Saturday night at Selkirk Stadium.

The Miners did still make the finals last year after losing the grand final of 2024 but lost first up to the Melbourne Tigers and now have had a big change over for 2026 including appointing Ray Borner as coach to replace South East Melbourne Phoenix assistant Luke Brennan.

The Braves had a tough finish to 2025 with six straight losses to miss the finals at 8-14. They've also made a change with their coach replacing Steve Black with Josh Cheney along with bringing in a host of new faces.

That worked a treat for Bendigo away from home too with seven offensive rebounds in the first quarter helping them to a seven-point lead after one which grew to 16 at the half and then 25 by three quarter-time.

It got out to 27 early in the fourth too before a strong finish from the Miners at home including going on a 12-0 run to cut the final winning margin of Bendigo back to just 10.

Five Bendigo players ended up scoring between 12 and 18 points in the win in what is an impressive first up victory to start a new era with the Braves.

Billy Smythe was on fire early with eight points in the first quarter on his way to 18 for the game with seven rebounds.

Ray Turner showed that he still has plenty to offer as a 36-year-old with the veteran big man making his return after three previous seasons in Bendigo as well as playing across the country in Western Australia and Queensland, and having a stint with the Sydney Kings back in NBL19.

He had a big say in the game too despite only playing 17 minutes for 17 points and 10 rebounds to be +9 in that time.

Jordan Straatsma had 13 points to half-time and finished with 17 and five rebounds on 3/5 three-point shooting with Biwali Bayles delivering 14 points, eight rebounds and eight assists following his NBL season with the Illawarra Hawks.

Jarvis Doles also finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds with Jake Lloyd contributing five points, three rebounds and three assists on his former home floor.

It was a tough night for Ballarat for three quarters but they will take plenty from the 28-point fourth with Lachlan Dent finding some confidence to end up with 18 points and eight assists despite still only shooting 5/21 from the floor and 2/10 from deep.

Brooklyn Bruton went 3/5 from three for 18 points with three steals while Jaden Campbell finished with 13 points and four rebounds, and Cearius Warren seven points, 10 boards and two blocked shots.

Even with an encouraging start to his NBL1 South career with an early four-point play for Ballarat from Jaden Campbell, Bendigo soon took charge. With seven offensive rebounds, they ended up leading 21-14 by quarter-time with Billy Smythe scoring on the buzzer after another o-board.

The Braves had eight second chance points in that first quarter and then lit it up in the second frame putting up 33 points with 4/8 three-point shooting and going 13/21 overall from the field.

By half-time, they had 12 offensive boards for 15 second chance points with Jordan Straatsma having 13 points, Smythe 12 and Jarvis Doles 12 for the commanding 54-38 lead with the Miners going 4/19 from deep despite 2/2 for 10 points from Brooklyn Bruton.

It was more of the same in the third quarter from the Braves with 22 points to 13 as the lead was out to 25 by three quarter-time. It was as much as 27 early in the fourth before the Miners did finish strongly on their home floor to take something out of the opener to cut the margin back to 10.

The Miners have the quick turnaround to Sunday to remain at home and host the Diamond Valley Eagles with the Braves back in action on Thursday night in their home opener against Geelong United.

NBL SOUTH 2026 SEASON | ROUND 1

BALLARAT MINERS 79 (Bruton 18, Dent 18, Campbell 13)

BENDIGO BRAVES 89 (Smythe 18, Turner 17, Straatsma 17)