WSL Weekend Report - Your 2026 Youth Men 1 are one win away from the Grand Final!
The 2026 Wilson Waratah Senior League has been an overall success for the City of Blacktown Basketball Association (CBBA), with 5 of our 7 teams fighting for positions in the finals’ series! After an incredible round of home games last weekend, two Storm teams were in the Quarter Finals and hopeful for success!
The weekend started with the Waratah 2 Youth Men taking on the 15-1 Marrickville Spirit Blue at their home turf - Marrickville PCYC at 12:30PM. The Storm started their scoring with a Salesi Mackenzie 3 pointer, but a few back-and-forth points led to a 14-0 Marrickville run that set the tone for the rest of the game. The final score saw the Spirit defeating the Storm 114-78, which puts an end to their incredible and historic season. Your top Storm scorers were Duong Mawien (18pts), Liam Naylor (15pts), and LeBron Dwayne Castanares (11pts).
Following this game, many of the supporters rushed over to the glorious Storm home ground to catch your YLM1 take on the sixth seeded Bulls in the first round of the finals - the grandstands filled up ready for the afternoon tip-off!
The first quarter sucked the air out of the Storm fans, finishing with only scoring 8 points to the Bulls’ 22. The second quarter showed the crowd, however, to strap in tight as the Blacktown Storm comeback was on! Half-time score: 33-39.
The second half began the same as the first, with the Storm unable to find easy baskets - pushing the Bulls into an ever-growing lead.
A final ticketing count saw over 250 attendees at the game, and their voices began to grow louder than ever in the fourth quarter!
The Bulls had a 16-point lead with just over 4 minutes to play; and a Coach Mayor time-out helped re-group the troops - the Storm knew what to do.
Slowly, the score began to trickle closer to a tie, and the last two minutes saw: a massive Rilpuou Dut dunk, a huge corner three by Liam Looyschelder, a massive inside lay-up by “Big Shot James” Leo, according to SJ from Love of the Game, and a costly unsportsmanlike foul by the Bulls - and the rest was history. Your Storm Youth Men 1 defeated the Bulls 78-75 and have booked a ticket into the semi-finals! Your top performers were Rilpuou Dut (17pts), Akol Athieu (14pts), James Leo (13pts) and Lueth Awan (12pts).
A massive thank you to the always impressive Australian Rhythmic Gymnastics half-time performances across the 2026 season, and to the the Meat Cartel for keeping everyone buzzing with the meat-tray raffles to conclude the final three rounds.
In a new shake-up to the Waratah Senior League format, semi-finals are now hosted home-and-away on regular season seeding. This sets the stage for a cross-city rival semi-final as your Blacktown Storm take on the Hills Hornets. And we need you there!
The teams currently sit at 1 win-1 loss, with a Round 1 win to the Storm by 6 points and a Round 15 loss by 6 points - this game could go any way! A history making crowd attending the Hills Basketball Stadium could rally your Storm men into the grand final next weekend.
“Our home quarter-final was a testament to how much this Association means to our players, coaches and community. I want to sincerely thank everyone who supported our YLM teams during their finals appearances, and extend that gratitude to everyone who attended and supported all Blacktown Storm teams throughout the 2026 season.” said the CBBA General Manager, Lachlan Arford. “Youth Men 1 are back in action this Saturday at Hills. It would be fantastic to see the Blacktown Storm community there to support the boys.”.
The details can be found below:
Waratah 1 Youth Men - Hills Hornets vs Blacktown Storm
Saturday August 15th, 2026 - 6:30PM - Hills Basketball Stadium
Tickets: Adults $10, Concession/Child $5
The Bar will be open for all - however alcohol must not be taken into the grandstands or be brought to the venue
If you aren’t able to attend, there will not be a live-stream - so best to download the BasketballConnect app or visit the game link here.
Make sure to check out photos from across both games below, thanks to JB Collective Media!
