West Spotlight | Buccs withstand Schetter for big win

Featured image: @ArcticMoonPhotography

The Geraldton Buccaneers would have been frustrated from the night before and then withstood Will Tschetter's 32 first half points on Sunday before dominating the NBL1 West Grand Final rematch to beat the Warwick Senators 108-88.

It had already been an eventful weekend for both teams for different reasons with the Senators starting things off on Friday night with an impressive win at Mirrabooka against the Mandurah Magic.

The Buccs then shook off a slow start at home to the Goldfields Giants on Saturday night to be leading 47-32 by half-time on the back of a 29-10 second quarter before that game was called off at Active West Stadium due to a wet court thanks to the storm on the night.

The floor was in better condition on Sunday night as the Buccs hosted the Senators in a Grand Final rematch, but Will Tschetter was unstoppable in second quarter with the Michigan NCAA championship winner going into half-time with 32 points to his name.

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Josh Keyes took that personally for Geraldton and did a lockdown job on him in the second half holding him to one-point the rest of the game on just four more shot attempts and the Buccaneers took control.

The reigning champions ended up leading by as much as 27 points on the way to the 20-point win to improve to a 9-2 record with six straight victories.

On top of Keyes' defensive job in the second half, he finished with 21 points, four rebounds and two assists to be +28 in his 30 minutes.

Matt Norman only had one three-point attempt in the second half but still had 19 points on 5/9 shooting from behind the arc with Liam Hunt delivering another 17 points, five assists and four rebounds.

Cooper Creek was playing against the team he helped to the Grand Final last year and had 14 points, 11 rebounds and two assists with Devondrick Walker adding 11 points, five assists, four boards and three steals, Verle Williams 10 points and three assists, and Brendan Redhead 10 points and two assists.

The Senators split their tough weekend to now be 4-9 with Tschetter ending up with 33 points, four rebounds and two assists with 12/19 shooting from the field and 6/9 from deep. But it was just one-point on 0/4 after half-time.

Tyler Shand added 14 points, six rebounds and five assists, Marshawn Blackmon 13 points and two boards, Marcus Inu 10 points and five rebounds, and George Pearl seven points, seven boards and five assists.

The Buccs only ended up playing a half the night before against the Goldfields Giants while the Senators had won big back on Friday night against the Mandurah Magic as they tried to revive some life into their season ahead of the Grand Final rematch.

And it was a strong start from Warwick in Geraldton with an early five-point lead with Will Tschetter scoring nine points and Tyler Shand eight in the first quarter, but the Buccs worked back into the contest nicely.

Geraldton only went 2/8 from deep for the quarter, but they did get up five extra shots and forced the Senators into four turnovers to go into quarter-time leading with Josh Keyes scoring eight points and Liam Hunt seven.

It was quite the eventful second quarter with the two teams combining to score 63 points with Warwick scoring 31 of those with 23 of them courtesy of Tschetter.

The young big man had 32 points to his name by half-time on 12/15 shooting with 6/8 from long-range but even with that, Geraldton were leading 59-51 by half-time.

The Buccs still scored 32 points themselves on 12/21 shooting in the second period with Keyes adding five more while by half-time Matt Norman had scored 15 points on 5/8 three-point shooting.

Geraldton then completely took control in the third quarter with 32 points to 20 on the back of another 13/18 shooting from the floor but more importantly the focus was made for Keyes to lock in defensively on Tschetter.

And he held him to one-point while missing his three shot attempts and as a result the Buccaneers went into three quarter-time leading 91-71.

The lead got out to 27 in the fourth period as well for the Buccs before they secured the 20-point win to make it six straight and they had been on track to have made that seven in the position they were in the previous night against the Giants.

The Senators will now attempt to bounce back on Friday night when they are away to the Joondalup Wolves while the Buccaneers remain at home on Saturday night against the Willetton Tigers with both teams coming off a Sunday victory.

NBL1 WEST 2026 SEASON | HERITAGE ROUND

GERALDTON BUCCANEERS 108 (Keyes 21, Norman 19, Hunt 17)

WARWICK SENATORS 88 (Tschetter 33, Shand 14, Blackmon 13)