Jesse Weinstein in action against the Bruins. Photo courtesy of flicksby.tessa
PENRITH’S senior men’s team has grabbed a strong 98-91 win over the Albury Wodonga Bandits on Sunday afternoon at the Minto Sports Stadium, in Round 13 of the 2026 Mitsubishi Motors NBL1 East basketball competition.
The victory was some consolation for a disappointing loss on Saturday at the Condell Park basketball Stadium, where the Panthers let a narrow lead slip through their fingers in the last two minutes of regular time, allowing the Bankstown Bruins to level 88-88 at full time.
Bankstown could not be denied in overtime, winning that period 16-5 to record a 104-93 win.
The Penrith women are severely short-handed at the back end of the season, first losing leading scorer Hannah Griffin, who is recovering from heart surgery, then losing import Maria Garcia Leon with an ankle injury in Round 11.
The Panthers fell 83-57 to the Bruins on Saturday night, then fell 97-66 to the Albury/Wodonga Bandits on Sunday.
Discussing the absence of two of his key players, Penrith Women’s head coach Liam Cavanagh-Downs said, “The girls know the adversity upon them, and we’ve been facing some sort of adversity all season, so this is nothing new to us.
“We have an idea of what an acceptable standard to be playing at is, regardless of the result, and we’re just trying to continue to hold ourselves accountable to that and have been decently happy with our play.
“We know we’re going to struggle against teams with dominant bigs (big players) but statistically, we’ve improved and are playing a little better than what is expected from us. We were able to push Albury through three quarters today, as with Bankstown yesterday, so we feel whilst we’d like to be better and keep improving, we know for where we are, we’re doing alright and we just have two more weeks to see how much we can push that improvement.
“We’ve got our fingers crossed we might have Maria back for the final two games, in two weeks’ time, but it’s a day-by-day process at the moment.”
Penrith host the Hills District Hornets this Saturday night at the Minto Indoor Sports Stadium (women 6pm, men 8pm).
Saturday. Bankstown Women 83 def Penrith 57 (Tatiana Beaumont 12 points / 10 boards, Sofia Hunt 10 points / 9 boards, Lauren Martin 10 points); Bankstown Men 104 def Penrith 93 (Simun Krpez 26 points, Jett Hickson 12, Ben Kearins 10, Angus Ollie 10)
Sunday: Albury-Wodonga Women 97 def Penrith 66 (Sofia Hunt 20 points, Chanel Bastin 17, Tatiana Beaumont 8 points / 10 boards); Penrith Men 98 (Angus Ollie 20 points / 9 boards, Jett Hickson 21 points, Simun Krpez 16 points / 9 boards, Jonah Pares 15 points, Jack Ticic 14) def Albury-Wodonga 93.
