West Spotlight | Keyes hits the winner for Buccs in OT

Featured image: Eric Paul Goldie / @ericpaulgoldie

An on-point pass from Liam Hunt with 0.7 seconds left allowed Josh Keyes to hit the game winner as the Geraldton Buccaneers continued to find ways to win in the NBL1 West to beat the Lakeside Lightning 102-100 in overtime.

Both teams arrived at Lakeside Recreation Centre on Sunday afternoon fresh off Saturday night wins with the Lightning beating the South West Slammers by 22 points with the Buccaneers also downing the Perth Redbacks by 23.

That set the stage nicely for the match up and it was a tight and tense battle the entire way with the biggest margin the 10 points that Lakeside were on top by early in the piece.

Then coming to the end of regulation, the Buccs copped a couple of rough non-calls and then Isaiah Lewis ensured the game got to overtime with two clutch free throws for the Lightning.

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Then coming to the end of the overtime period and Yahui Sun banked in a huge three from up top to level scores up with only 0.7 seconds remaining.

Geraldton had one last chance out of a timeout and it was a picture perfect pass from Hunt that found Keyes under bucket, and he made the shot and the Buccs didn’t have to delay that bus trip home any further.

Geraldton improves to 8-2 as the defending champions with the pair of road wins with Devondrick Walker finishing with 30 points, six rebounds and two assists with 8/19 three-point shooting.

Josh Keyes had 20 points, nine rebounds and three assists as well as making the game winner with Liam Hunt contributing 14 points, 10 boards and four assists, Cooper Creek 14 points, nine rebounds and two blocks, and Verle Williams 10 points and seven assists.

Lakeside are now 4-8 after splitting their weekend double with Josh Davey delivering a monstrous performance with 23 points, 21 rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Michael Imariagbe added 20 points, eight rebounds and three assists, Corey Shervill 19 points, six assists and four boards, Liam Patterson 15 points and four assists, and Yahui Sun nine points, five assists and four rebounds.

Both teams came into the Sunday match up fresh off wins on Saturday night and both had their turn with the momentum in the opening period before it was Lakeside leading 23-21 by quarter-time with Josh Davey already up to nine points and eight rebounds.

The Lightning again were on top for virtually the whole second quarter but Geraldton just continued to hang around and by half-time Lakeside's lead was only 47-46 despite the 14 points and 11 rebounds from Davey already.

Liam Hunt and Josh Keyes had 11 points each for Geraldton with Devondrick Walker warming to the task and up to eight even with the Buccs shooting just 6/22 from deep but having 19 free-throw attempts to six.

Lakeside's lead was again out to seven in the third term but then the Buccs got on a roll with 11 straight points to grab their own five-point advantage with Walker scoring 14 points in the term.

The Lightning managed to reclaim the lead to be up 69-65 heading into the fourth quarter where things picked up a notch and the tensions rose especially with some non-calls the Buccs felt they didn’t get around the basket.

That included on the last possession where Walker did appear to receive plenty of contact on the drive but the whistle never went and in the end it was two clutch Lakeside free throws from Isaiah Lewis that got the game to overtime.

It remained a tense and entertaining contest all of overtime and it did look set to be going to a second extra period when Yahui Sun landed a huge three that went in off the glass for the Lightning to tie scores up.

There was just 0.7 left on the clock with Buccs coach Dayle Joseph drawing up a play in the timeout that his team went out and executed perfectly.

A lob pass from Hunt was perfectly on point and Keyes caught it under the basket, quickly got the shot off for the buzzer and he won the game for the Buccs in stunning fashion.

The Lightning will look to hit back to stay in the playoff hunt when they take on the on-fire Rockingham Flames on Saturday night while the Buccs return home return home to host the Goldfields Giants the same evening.

NBL1 WEST 2026 SEASON | ROUND 9

LAKESIDE LIGHTNING 100 (Davey 23, Imariagbe 20, Shervill 19)

GERALDTON BUCCANEERS 102 (Walker 30, Keyes 20, Hunt 14, Creek 14)