HoopsFest returns to Perth as Lynx, Spirit steal the show
HoopsFest undergoes minor renovation in year two, and is once again an unmitigated success.
Photo credit: Kayla Ann Mathews, @mykam.era on Instagram
HoopsFest returned to Perth for its second rendition, with a slight twist - it now runs in the thick of both the NBL and WNBL seasons, rather than round 1 for the NBL, which is around six weeks before the WNBL season tips off.
Perthlings came out in full chorus to open up proceedings, where their Perth Lynx hosted the Bendigo Spirit for a Thursday 4pm tip off. The crowd’s anticipation and enthusiasm was met by these two teams and the bar for HoopsFest 2026 was set astronomically high. These two title favourites traded haymakers all night with the visitors in control for nearly all of the game, yet the Lynx went on a run in the final stretch to come away victorious.
Ally Wilson shared her thoughts on the atmosphere in the postgame press conference, after pouring in 26 points on 6-9 shooting from deep. “The atmosphere here is amazing. I wish we could play here every week and there was a really good crowd. The energy and everything that we felt coming out and being on the court was incredible.”
Here, Wilson takes the lead for Perth after they trailed all game on an archetypal Lynx possession, where Anneli Maley fights for the offensive rebound.
Wilson’s foe for the night, Isobel Borlase had another strong outing en route to a potential MVP with a 21-point, 11-rebound double-double to go along with three assists and a steal.
Borlase shared a similar sentiment on the atmosphere in her presser: “It was a really cool atmosphere to play in front of. I think, yeah, more people than I probably thought there was going to be. It’s just nice to see that we can produce a a good brand of basketball and people want to come and watch it.”
They were followed by the NBL with the third-placed Sydney Kings and the table-bottoming Brisbane Bullets. Despite a 9-0 run to start the game for the Bullets, the Kings handled them easily behind efficient double-doubles from both Kendric Davis and Kouat Noi. Although the Perth Wildcats weren’t playing, the crowd was still sizeable and engaged. Perth continues to prove that it’s the right place to host HoopsFest.
Hot start
Friday rolled around with the Geelong Venom and Sydney Flames. This time the Perth workforce were a little more responsible as they slowly trickled in for another 4pm tip off. By halftime, at 5pm, they weren’t going to knock off a second later and they headed straight to the arena. The capacity would have reached its limit at around 5000, a great turnout for two east coast teams.
For the Venom, Mackenzie Holmes had a double-double in her first 10 minutes of game time, then Alissa Pili owned the second quarter, then both of them dominated the third while backcourt mates Jaz Shelley and Shyla Heal maintained scoreboard and playmaking pressure all game. This was a rout that slipped away from Sydney at the end of the first half and completely capitulated in the third. Geelong showed their best, which is as good as anyone’s, but remain in last place despite the win.
It was time for the men’s hosts to take centre stage with the Perth Wildcats playing the Illawarra Hawks. Although there’s only two places separating these teams in the standings, the Wildcats almost double them in wins. Even so, it doesn’t change the fact that the Hawks are the defending champions, which both coaches noted in their postgame press conferences.
For the Hawks, Justin Tatum said, “we’re the champions, we understand we’re gonna get everybody’s best shot. We got to do better.”
He also spoke on benching Javale McGee in the fourth quarter with his usual cutting honesty.
“We we’re down and they’re smaller and our bigs wasn’t making shots. It wasn’t no advantage for us to have both of them out there and we were down. So we just had to make adjustments as a staff and Sam [Froling] and Javale are really great teammates. They understand it and they want to do everything they can to find a way to win. So they don’t have a problem with it.”
It was a great adjustment from Tatum to go small to close the game out, but still, they fell. As Perth’s John Rillie shared, “they’re the defending champs. They were champs for a reason. I’m sure they still feel like they’re a statistical chance of making the playoffs. So that that’s a dangerous combination right there.”
Both outfits had a fairly balanced scoring spread, with each team having four players hit double figures. Kristian Doolittle led all performers with 21 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and took an absolute beating, drawing 10 fouls. The physicality and intensity brought a playoff feeling. Although the Wildcats were able to maintain a buffer throughout crunch time, they only came away with a five point win.
The energy at RAC Arena provided a push for the home team, which 17 year vet Jesse Wagstaff spoke on in the postgame press conference: “It’s really cool. I was [here] yesterday. My my daughters played at halftime of the the Lynx game. It was a great turnout… It’s a really good atmosphere. Obviously it’s nice to stay in Perth, but to have a weekend with the WNBL, the NBL [and] it’s just kind of basketball all week, I think it’s a fantastic initiative. I think the the public has really shown out. It was a great turnout last night and I really liked the atmosphere and it was it was no different tonight… It’s been fantastic so far.”
Wagstaff was in the NBL when Melbourne were still the Tigers and Larry Kestelman wasn’t involved at all, so he has seen the league’s growth more intimately than anyone else. Of Melbourne, it had representation in both the WNBL and NBL on Saturday’s triple header.
Triple header
The Southside Melbourne Flyers and Adelaide Lightning showed out in front of a few thousand in an arm wrestle. Southside dominated the inside in the first half, winning the rebound count 20-14 including nine offensive. Dallas Loughridge kept the Lightning alive with 20 points on 10 field goal attempts and her team’s efficiency kept them afloat at the main break.
A 19-9 third quarter in the Flyers favour tied this one up early. In the postgame press conference, head coach Kristi Harrower lent her insights on the second half flurry while keeping her team accountable on their first half showing. “I said to the girls at halftime, when you’re playing against the top teams, you can’t you can’t take a half to get into the basketball game. You got to do it from word go. I’m sure every coach says it, your defence generates your offence. I felt like we did that we could get out and run a little bit more, which is a bit of our identity. Not that we were always hitting our shots, but it just it meant that we weren’t getting bogged down in the half court and they were being physical with us. So when we get out and run and we get our shooters shooting the ball and shooting it well and we’re knocking down our threes, we become pretty tough to guard.”
They were followed by another second half blowout, this time in the NBL. The New Zealand Breakers broke away from the Cairns Taipans in the third and didn’t look back. Although the first half was close on the scoreboard, everything was hard work for Cairns while the Breakers felt like they hadn’t taken it out of first gear.
Saturday night delivered an utter slugfest between Melbourne United and the Tasmania JackJumpers. From Friday night lights to Saturday night fever, the playoff atmosphere transferred. This bout had a completely different complexion to the rest of the weekend. It was tight, tense and neither team gave up an inch defensively. The 23-21 first quarter had the largest point differential, with the second and third terms separated by a point and the last a deadlock.
Jesse Edwards was stellar for United, with 21 points on nine field goal attempts, 10 rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Included in the latter was a game saving block after his team forced a shot clock violation.
As Edwards shared in the postgame presser: “You go into a game wanting to win your personal matchup, always. And most of all wanting to get that win, especially in this matchup where we had two tough ones before. So, yeah, definitely happy and it was a good team performance.”
Nightcap
Sunday morning rolled around with the most highly anticipated game for the NBL. Side note: does anyone else find it crazy when a professional sports league starts a game in the AM? I mean, I get it from the broadcast point of view, but still, it’s the morning. Like, outside of watching American sports, when do you wake up for a game at 11:30am?
Anyway, that aside. The South East Melbourne Phoenix and Adelaide 36ers faced off in a top of the table clash. In yet another return to Perth for Australian Bryce Cotton, he brought something of a mobile home court advantage for Adelaide. For a game that was shaping up to be a clash of titans, it was anything but.
After finishing the first quarter up eight, the Phoenix very maturely and responsibly retained an advantage on the scoreboard. The 36ers never got closer than six after the first break, even with 30 points from Cotton. South East Melbourne got contributions across the board off the back of excellent play from their one and five. Ian Clark had 27 of his own while Jordi Hunter flirted with a double-double, finishing with 20 points and nine board, while only taking nine shots.
Up until this matchup, Clark had only amassed 30 points on the season across five games, albeit in limited minutes. But cometh the moment, cometh the man, and this was something of a statement game from the Phoenix. It was also Clark’s second experience at HoopsFest and spoke on this in his postgame interview on court:
“It’s been great. I was a part of it last year and being able to come back this year and be here the whole weekend and see all the games, both NBL and WNBL, and all the extracurricular activities has been great. So, I’m happy.”
The energy of days yore had definitely dissipated on the Sunday, and even though the stadium was somewhat full, the crowd was noticeably less engaged. But who can blame them, given we’ve had been at it for four days at this point. With attendances, there was last minute promotion on tickets being sold at 50% of their original price on game day. Also, tickets were discounted for Perth locals regardless of when they purchased them. This undoubtedly helped with the crowd sizes and, thus, the energy.
It was a good initiative that ruffled a few feathers, with some fans feeling as though they were punished for buying tickets early to support their team. The curtains were down and blocking the bleachers for most of the games as well, which supplemented the feeling of a “full” stadium.
All of this definitely played a minor role across the event and likely did more good than harm, yet it’s understandable if some fans felt unseen.
The Townsville Fire and Canberra Capitals then brought things home and finished HoopsFest with a bang. This was the first time this matchup featured Zitina Aokuso for Canberra and omitted Lauren Cox for the Fire. That difference could be felt tenfold as the table middling Capitals were ahead for most of the second half, yet a final quarter in which Townsville won 15-5 helped them commandeer the scoreboard. It was an impressive full stop on a great weekend of basketball and both bookends were competitive.
What now?
With 20-20 hindsight, the crescendo of this event was the Perth Lynx and Bendigo Spirit, which feels like a lifetime ago. It had everything Perthlings could have wanted; a great basketball game, a comeback, big shots, an Allen Iverson appearance and, most importantly, a Perth win.
HoopsFest is a universally loved event, with fans, players and coaches from both the WNBL and NBL having nothing but praise. The integration of Perth’s CBD, the geographic location of RAC Arena and its proximity to public transport as well as sneaker retail outlets and a shop called Hoops Heaven being a 10-minute walk away, all play unspoken roles in supplementing the festival of basketball this event is. It’s a connector of everyone through the sport.
Simply put: if you’re there, you’re there for basketball.
Getting there however, or being there, is a whole different story. Although it has strong teams in both the NBL and WNBL, Perth is extremely far from the rest of the country. The closest market for basketball teams is in Adelaide, which is a three hour flight and two and a half time zones away. The event spills out on to the street and integrates the city, but isn’t necessarily the most convenient place to get to. Timing-wise, it falls in the middle of the school holidays but it doesn’t fall on a long weekend, and most parents are back at work, which also make the 4pm tip off challenging.
There is chatter surrounding whether other cities should get a turn at hosting HoopsFest, or if it should be a rotating responsibility. This could be perceived as a risk from the NBL as the expectations set by Perth so far would be hard to match. However, the creation of a different event that had similar properties could be an interesting consideration for the league in the long term.
The NBL has come a long way and is continues to grow alongside the WNBL. HoopsFest is becoming a platform that allows every player is ready to feed off the energy in the arena, with an excellent product on display. With a lens to the future and a reflection on the past, basketball is in a great place in Australia.