West Spotlight | Forster shines for Senators in opener

Featured image: Michael Farnell @sportsimageryau

Fresh off winning a WNBL championship with the Townsville Fire, Chloe Forster put up 21 first half points on the way to 31 in the NBL1 West season opener as the Warwick Senators beat the Perry Lakes Hawks 80-67.

It was the first game of the NBL1 West season for 2026 at Warwick Stadium on Thursday night with the Senators and Hawks both coming off being top four teams by the end of 2025.

The Hawks lost in the preliminary final to the Cockburn Cougars who then also went on to beat the Senators in the grand final a week later at RAC Arena.

It's been decidedly different off seasons for both teams since with the Senators keeping the majority of their squad together under coach Brad Robbins with the biggest move the departure of two-time MVP Stacey Barr and the arrival of Jayda Clark after her WNBL season at the UC Capitals.

There's been significant change at the Hawks with Marcus Embury taking over as coach and from that preliminary final team last year, Grace Stone, Eryn Fisher, Maddy Dennis and Alex Fowler all weren’t there on Thursday along with Clark who was up against her former team first up.

The Senators blew the game open in the second quarter outscoring the Hawks 29-16 with Forster scoring 14 of those for the home team as they then maintained control through the second half for the 13-point victory.

Warwick ended up taking 22 extra shots in the game than Perry Lakes with not much between how they shot while both struggled from downtown with the Senators going 4/25 and the Hawks 3/17.

Perry Lakes did go 18/29 at the foul line to 8/11 from Warwick, but the Senators did force the Hawks into 26 turnovers including eight from Beggs as she struggled against the defensive pressure of Forster who had seven steals of her own.

Fresh off being part of Townsville Fire's WNBL championship and her brilliant NBL1 West season at the Senators, Forster was outstanding with 31 points, eight rebounds and four assists on 14/26 shooting from the floor.

Kyana Weir is also coming off a WNBL season at the Perth Lynx and made the most of the spot opened up from the departing Stacey Barr. She ended up with 13 points, three steals and two assists.

Jayda Clark was back to her original club and had 10 points, five assists and three steals for Warwick with evergreen veteran Nat Burton holding her own down low with 13 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

Mackenzie Clinch Hoycard is back in town also after a first WNBL season with the Geelong Venom. She finished with eight points, six rebounds and three assists.

Emilie Biggs was trusted with the point guard duties for Perry Lakes and despite the turnovers, did plenty of good things with 17 points, three rebounds and three assists on 6/7 field goal shooting while going 5/8 from the foul line.

Bridgette Rettstatt delivered 14 points, nine rebounds and six steals in her first game with Perry Lakes with fellow new arrival Mila Wawszkowicz having seven points and two assists, Emma Clark seven points, and Maddison Zugna nine points, three rebounds and two assists.

Jess Jakens battled hard as has been customary over her 295-game career with the Perth Redbacks, Willetton Tigers and Rockingham Flames, and had five assists and three rebounds.

The story of the night became the battle of Chloe Forster and Emilie Beggs as point guards, and they had seven points each in an entertaining first quarter which saw Warwick narrowly leading 22-21 by the end of it.

Forster then took over the contest in the second quarter by putting up another 14 points for the Senators and on the back of her efforts, Warwick outscored Perry Lakes 29 points to 16.

That saw the home team leading 51-37 going into the locker room for half-time on the back of shooting 52 per cent from the field to 46 and also attempting 14 more shots even though the Hawks went 10/17 at the foul line to 3/5 from the Senators.

Things dried up for both teams significantly in the third quarter with just the 11 points for Warwick and 14 for Perry Lakes with neither team able to connect on any of their attempts from behind the three-point line.

The Senators then continued to maintain control in the fourth quarter on the way to the season-opening 13-point win but there was plenty for the Hawks to take out of the first up hit out too.

Both teams are in action again next Thursday night ahead of the Easter long weekend with the Senators on the road to the Kalamunda Eastern Suns while the Hawks host the Joondalup Wolves at Bendat Basketball Centre.

NBL WEST 2026 SEASON | ROUND 1

WARWICK SENATORS 80 (Forster 31, Weir 13, Burton 13)

PERRY LAKES HAWKS 67 (Beggs 17, Rettstatt 14, Zugna 9)