West Finals | Senators prevail in Battle of Joondalup

Featured image: Michael Farnell @sportsimageryau

The Joondalup Wolves arrived with plenty of momentum but the Warwick Senators have looked an NBL1 West contender all year and now are one win from another Grand Final with the 91-70 victory.

It was a finals Battle of Joondalup on Thursday night at Warwick Stadium with the Senators playing host to the Wolfpack with the reward a place in Saturday night's preliminary final against the Rockingham Flames.

The Senators finished the regular season in fourth place before losing to open the finals to the Cockburn Cougars in a rematch of last year's Grand Final, but they had earned the double chance for their 14-6 regular season.

Joondalup have a totally new group in 2026 including coach Mitch Langford and it took a while for things to click, but they had too much talent for it to not eventually happen and it did to close the regular season with them winning four of the last five.

The Wolves then went on to shock the Magic in Mandurah last Friday night in a tremendous performance to keep their season alive and set up the Thursday semi-final battle with the Senators.

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Warwick were determined to avoid a straight sets exit and started strongly to open up the 25-16 advantage by the end of the first quarter.

That lead blew out to 17 points in the second term for the Senators and by half-time they were still in control leading 47-35 on the back of their back court dominating with Chloe Forster scoring 16 points, Jayda Clark 11 and Kyana Weir eight.

Warwick were shooting 48 per cent to 39 and 7/19 to 4/9 from the outside along with forcing Joondalup into 10 turnovers who did get eight points on 2/3 three-point shooting from Rosie Deegan.

The Wolfpack did try to work back into the contest in the third quarter but their shot was eluding them and they managed to just go 1/6 for the quarter from deep just as Warwick did.

But the Senators had the lead and they were on top 69-55 still by three quarter-time before then taking charge for good in the last stanza with a 10-0 run to get out by 23, and win by 21.

It was a dominant performance from Warwick to advance to the preliminary final on Saturday night against the Rockingham Flames with the winner to advance to next Saturday's Grand Final at RAC Arena.

Chloe Forster led the way with the WNBL championship winner finishing with 23 points, eight assists and six rebounds while back court running mate Jayda Clark also having 18 points, four boards, two assists and two steals.

Kyana Weir also had 13 points with 3/5 shooting from the outside while Greta Kampschroeder contributed 15 points, three rebound and two steals, Mackenzie Clinch Hoycard 10 points and five boards, and Kiara Waite 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.

It was a tough way for the season to finish for Joondalup but they'll be left to wonder what could have been had things come together for them a little earlier in 2026 with the group they had.

Kim Pierre-Louis proved herself one of the elite players in the competition even if receiving a bizarre snub of any post-season recognition and produced another 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Asianae Johnson also had 17 points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals, Rosie Deegan 15 points and three boards on 3/7 three-point shooting, Yemiyah Morris eight points, five rebounds, two assists and two blocks, and Awatea Leach seven points and four boards.

NBL1 WEST 2026 SEASON | SEMI FINALS

WARWICK SENATORS 91 (Forster 23, Clark 18, Kampschroeder 15)

JOONDALUP WOLVES 70 (Johnson 17, Pierre-Louis 17, Deegan 15)