Manly Warringah Sea Eagles celebrate 2025 NBL1 East title

Having been banging on the door, the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are NBL1 East champions for the first time and have won their first women's title since 2017 with a dominant 89-61 Grand Final win against the Centre of Excellence. The Sea Eagles have been within touching distance of an NBL1 East championship for several years now including losing a Grand Final in 2023 after a brilliant regular season, and they have been on a mission right throughout 2025. Coach Nathan Kirwan had his team firing on all cylinders on the back of being eliminated by the eventual champion Newcastle Falcons in a preliminary final last year on the way to an 18-2 record to claim top spot. They then beat the Albury-Wodonga Bandits and the Falcons on the way to a second Grand Final appearance in the last three years as they took on the young guns from the Centre of Excellence at Penrith Valley Regional Sports Centre. It had been a mixed season for the CoE but that was largely just due to the complexities of their season given player availability of players at different times including this year the Under-19 World Cup thrown in the mix. They did win 10 of the first 12 games before the hurdles started to appear and with a month long break from playing in there too, they did only win two of the last eight matches. The CoE still did qualify from fifth position ahead of beating the Canberra Nationals, Bandits and finally the Norths Bears to book in their spot in Saturday's Grand Final against the Sea Eagles. Just like Manly Warringah have been on a mission all season long, they started the Grand Final in blistering fashion beginning with a three-pointer to Josie Bulman that began an 8-0 start with Alex Delaney (183-F-1995, college: SFC) also hitting a three ball. That ended up setting the tone for the rest of the Grand Final with the Sea Eagles not to be denied as they ended up leading 24-5 during that opening period. By quarter-time, Manly Warringah were in control with the 26-14 lead thanks to knocking down 6/10 from downtown while the Centre of Excellence shot just 5/15 overall. It was another 25 points to 10 in the second term for the Sea Eagles which saw the lead 51-24 by half-time on the back of shooting 20/36 from the field to the CoE's 8/31 including 8/12 from downtown to 2/11. Manly Warringah were then able to complete a 10-0 run in the third frame and the lead ballooned out to 35 points at one point and there would be no comeback from the Centre of Excellence with the Sea Eagles securing the dominant 28-point win. Manly Warringah ended up shooting 49 per cent from the field to 31 along with going 11/25 from three-point range to 6/23 to claim their first NBL1 East championship and the first title for the women's team since 2017. It's a fourth championship overall for the Manly Warringah women and it was no surprise that the season's MVP runner-up, Taylor Wurtz (183-G-1990, college: Wisconsin), was named Grand Final MVP on the back of 25 points, six rebounds and four assists with 6/13 three-point shooting. She had plenty of strong help too including Alex Delaney delivering 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists, Zoey Miller (177-F/G-2003) 17 points, eight boards, four assists and two steals, and Josie Bulman 11 points, six rebounds and five assists. Kim Dickinson became a championship winning captain and produced 15 points, seven rebounds and two assists. It will be another learning experience for some of Australian basketball's best young talent to get to play in a Grand Final with Olivia Olechnowicz top-scoring with 14 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals. Isabel Smith added 13 points, three rebounds and two assists, Zara Russell (185-F-2007) 11 points, five assists, four boards and two steals, and rising superstar Sitaya Fagan (189-F-2008) nine points, six steals, five rebounds and two blocked shots.
Courtesy of: nbl1.com.au