BSBL men’s: Bulls Gold beat reigning premiers Bulls Maroon by 32 points in top of the table clash

Bulls Gold maintained their place at the top of the Bunbury Senior Basketball League men’s A-grade ladder with an impressive 32-point victory over reigning premiers Bulls Maroon at South West Sports Centre on Friday night.

In a high-calibre contest featuring a number of players who played significant roles in the NBL1 West competition last season, it was last season’s beaten grand finalists Gold who emerged victorious in a rematch of the 2023-24 season decider, winning 120-88.

Eight quick points from Travis Durnin (32 points) helped Maroon out to an early nine-point lead but Gold quickly claimed the ascendancy and did not surrender it again for the remainder of the game.

The competition’s leading scorer Tanner Vogel had another big game for the winners, scoring 42 points, and his running mate Pharell Keats (21) also continued his strong form.

Maroon’s offensive juggernaut was largely kept quiet, with Durnin and Cody Hill (25 points) combining for more than half their score as their other players battled to provide scoring punch.

The most striking of the round’s other results was a monster 108-point win by Tornadoes Red over a struggling Eaton Eagles outfit.

The scoreboard read 145-37 at the final buzzer after Red dominated proceedings for the duration of the game against the dispirited Eagles, winning the first quarter by 32 points, the second by 22, the third by 26 and the fourth by 28 to secure a triple-digit margin.

Lachlan Bertram — a rising NBL1 West star with Mandurah Magic — registered a competition season-high 62 points in the huge win, while the size and experience of Clive Weeden (26 points) also proved too much for Eaton to handle.

The winless Eagles are rooted to the foot of the table, having lost their five contests by an average of 75.8 points.

Aces White and Conquerors’ contest was the most competitive of the night, with White running out four-point winners.

Having trailed for the duration of the game and behind by 15 points at the last break, Conquerors’ late attempts at a comeback were held off by White despite the best efforts of Xavier Mills (22 points) and Jordan Yarran (17).

Leith McWhirter (20 points) was most prominent in a balanced White scoring attack which saw four players score more than 15 points.

Tornadoes Black defeated Aces Sky by 23 points in the final game of the round.

Black were able to keep Sky at arm’s length for the duration of the contest, leading by 14 points at both the first and main breaks and 15 at the final interval in their 101-78 win.

Nathan Walsh was the game’s leading scorer in defeat with 27 points, with Ryan Smith (21 points) leading the way for the winners.