The Bankstown Bruins men’s team’s final home game of 2026 ended in disappointment as a strong Hills Hornets team came out firing, surging in the second half to beat the Bruins 77-69 at Bankstown Basketball Stadium on Saturday night.
The Bruins got off to a quick start, scoring first with a two-point jumping float shot from Anthony Mundine and extended an early lead as Deonte Williams slammed a two-point dunk. The first half saw the Hornets struggling to gain any momentum, but it was a tight tussle between the two teams. Edward Carr sank the Hornets’ first shot with a two-point jump shot.
Defensively, the Bruins piled up pressure, forcing the Hornets into a few turnovers throughout the quarter; however, the Hornets also made the Bruins turn the ball over. The Hornets tightened the margin on edge of quarter time and managed to beat the buzzer to slot a two-point layup from Pafe Momoisea.
Repeated turnovers and fouls from the Bruins in the second quarter allowed the Hornets to gain the lead. Hornets player Saxon Orsini had a solid second quarter performance, helping the Hornets to gain a solid lead.
The Bruins snatched the lead from the Hornets with Tederick Wolfe slotting a two-point layup and extended the margin thanks to shots scored by Zeke Evans and Jesse Edwards.
Pressure from the Hornets forced the Bruins to miss opportunities to score and eventually got the lead back from a two point layup by Orsini and took the lead into halftime.
Momoisea further extended the Hornets’ lead over the Bruins early in the third quarter, putting the Bruins under pressure. However, the Hornets turned the ball over on many occasions, as did the Bruins, with both teams injecting defensive pressure.
Momoisea had a solid quarter, helping his side sink the ball through the hoops on many occasions. The Bruins had many opportunities to score even when the visitors gifted them off turnovers, but kept missing.
The last quarter saw Hornets player Joshua Pain sink a three-point jump shot to extend their lead, as the Bruins tightened it off the back of shots from Wolfe and Jesse Edwards. But at the end, the constant pressure stung the Bruins, forcing turnovers and helping the Hornets extend the lead, which was too strong for the Bruins to overcome.
Post-game, Bruins CEO Christian Gobolos reflected on his team’s tough loss and pointed to many reasons.
“You’ve got to give the opponent a lot of credit because at the end of the day if they’re able to surge ahead then theyre either dictating something. It’s either dictating the defence or they’re dictating the offence. So for them to sort of surge ahead like that, I’m sure at the end of the day our guys would have put as much effort as they possibly could.” Gobolos said.
“I had a little look and look, they probably struggled a little bit with maybe some easy shots that they should have made, but at the end of the day, it’s credit to Hills and look, they’re fighting for their season as well, so there’s a lot on the line and obviously they wanted it more than we did.”
After the loss to the Hornets, the men’s team’s chances of making it to the finals are very slim, and they would need to rely on other teams’ results if they are to reach the finals this year.
But the Bruins can still finish the season well, as they now play two away games against the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Spiders and the Maitland Mustangs on June 18 and 19.
