West Spotlight | Buccs make another statement at home

Featured image: @ArcticMoonPhotography

The teams have played incredible preliminary finals the past two NBL1 West seasons but this time around the firepower of the Geraldton Buccaneers was too much with 66 points through the second and third quarters to beat the Willetton Tigers 118-92.

The night before the Buccs beat the Rockingham Flames at home by nine points as well to stay in the hunt for top spot and backed up on Sunday at Active West Stadium against the Tigers.

It's the same venue Willetton won a preliminary final at back in 2024 before Geraldton got one back at Willetton Basketball Stadium against the Tigers last year on the way to the championship.

The Tigers were coming off a stirring win on Friday night at home to the Joondalup Wolves but it was a big test coming to Geraldton without Bryce Johnson, Zac Gattorna, Alex Edwards and Tom Musumeci.

The spice was there at the end of the first quarter with Willetton's 393-game veteran guard Damien Scott at the forefront, but the Buccs took control with 66 points to 45 through the second and third quarters.

Over those 20 minutes, Geraldton shot 24/37 from the field, 6/15 from three-point range and 12/13 at the foul line to build a 30-point lead on the way to the 26-point win.

The result improves the Buccaneers to 14-3 just behind the 15-3 Flames while the Tigers are now 11-7 having split their weekend double.

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Geraldton finished the afternoon shooting 61 per cent from the field while going 12/29 from downtown and 20/26 at the foul line up against the 46 per cent from Willetton with 9/30 and 11/17.

It was a superb all-round display from the reigning champions with six players scoring at least 14 points with Verle Williams delivering 21 points, 12 assists, three rebounds and two steals.

Josh Keyes also had 21 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and two assists, Matt Norman 20 points, six boards and four assists, and Devondrick Walker 20 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Cooper Creek added 14 points, eight rebounds, two steals and two blocks, and Liam Hunt 14 points, six board and three assists.

Taeshon Cherry put up another 28 points and 11 rebounds for the Tigers with Damien Scott having 13 points on 5/5 shooting in the first quarter on his way to 21 for the game with five assists and three steals.

Channing Olowoyo earned his first start with the players missing and produced 11 points, two rebounds and two assists with Lachlan Burnett contributing 10 points, four boards and four assists, and Tom Gerovich 10 points and four rebounds.

With both teams having such a history against one another and coming off wins already this weekend, the stage was set for the Sunday match up and it was a highly entertaining and ultimately dramatic opening quarter.

Geraldton were leading 29-25 by quarter-time with both teams shooting 53 per cent but the drama happened late with a hard foul from Damien Scott, who already had 13 points, on Josh Keyes.

His frustrations spilled over to getting a technical when he was heading to the bench, but having just picked up an unsportsmanlike, he was lucky his sub had already been registered or else he would have been ejected with the Tigers already missing a string of stars.

The Buccaneers then got rolling further in the second quarter piling on 34 points on 14/17 shooting from the floor with 3/16 from downtown and by half-time Verle Williams had 21 points, Keyes 14 and Matt Norman 13.

Willetton did their best to stick with them with Taeshon Cherry having 16 points and Scott 15, but the Buccs were leading 63-54 by the main break.

Geraldton kept that momentum going with another 32 points in the third frame on the back of shooting another 10/20 from the floor with 3/9 from downtown and 9/10 at the stripe.

That saw the Buccs open up a 28-point lead along the way and being up 95-72 by three quarter-time and from there going on to score the 26-point win to move further clear in second spot and keep the pressure right on Rockingham.

The Buccs now hit the road next weekend to face Johny Narkle for the first with the Cockburn Cougars on Saturday and then in a Grand Final rematch with the Warwick Senators on Sunday.

Willetton also have a double header next weekend away to the Mandurah Magic on Friday and then at home to the Warwick Senators on Saturday.

NBL1 WEST 2026 SEASON | FIRST NATIONS ROUND

GERALDTON BUCCANEERS 118 (Williams 21, Keyes 21, Norman 20, Walker 20)

WILLETTON TIGERS 92 (Cherry 28, Scott 21, Olowoyo 11)