Bullets fall to Kings to open HoopsFest

The Brisbane Bullets had the shortest turnaround before playing at HoopsFest in Perth and while they did fight hard, ultimately the depth of the Sydney Kings and some self-inflicted blows led to a 15-point loss at RAC Arena.

The Kings had beaten the Bullets by a combined 62 points in the first two meetings of NBL26 between the two teams, but Brisbane were determined to put that right and made three long-range bombs in just over the first two minutes.

Sydney responded with the next 10 points and in the end the Bullets were playing catch up the rest of the way with the Kings ending up winning 95-80.

It was a distinctively different plan of attack from the Bullets from Monday night in Cairns where they went 3/16 from downtown and they got up 38 three-point attempts, making 12 of those.

They just couldn’t stop the Kings from scoring, though, and they ended up going 54 per cent from the floor and 12/27 from deep along with having 25 assists for the night.

Hunter Maldonado once again top-scored for the Bullets with 20 points and five assists with Alex Ducas back in his home state and producing 14 points six rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Terry Taylor also ended up with 12 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots, Jacob Holt 12 points and eight boards, Tristan Devers six points, Tohi Smith-Milner five points, three rebounds and two assists, Mitch Norton five points, three boards and two assists, Taine Murray three points and two rebounds, and Jack Purchase a late three-pointer.

Kouat Noi finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds on 6/10 three-point shooting for Sydney with Kendric Davis adding 23 points and 10 assists and Tyler Robertson scoring 17 points, Tim Soares 14 and Makuach Maluach 14.

The Bullets made a perfect start to open the NBL action at HoopsFest starting off with three straight triples from Alex Ducas, Terry Taylor and Hunter Maldonado to already make as many as they did on Monday night in Cairns.

Sydney took two and-a-half minutes to score but then went on their own 10-0 run to help the Kings to the 29-23 advantage on the back of shooting 65 per from the floor opposed to the 50 from the Bullets.

The hot shooting from the Kings continued in the second quarter and Kouat Noi hit another three triples of his own to go into half-time on 17 points with Sydney shooting 61 per cent overall and 8/13 from deep to be leading 52-41.

Turnovers again hurt the Bullets with nine to the half but a combined 23 points from Ducas and Maldonado kept them in touch.

The Bullets did make a fighting start to the second half with three balls to Mitch Norton and Jacob Holt before closing to within two after a pair of free throws from Maldonado.

From there, the Kings took control, though, going on an 18-3 run to close the rest of the third term including a couple of long balls to Robertson as the lead ballooned to 17 by three quarter-time.

The Bullets made an enterprising start to the fourth quarter and got back within eight after five straight points from Holt, but the Kings responded with the next seven points and turned that into the 15-point win.

The Bullets will now be on the road for their next game when they take on Melbourne United in Bendigo next Wednesday night in an Ignite Cup match up before returning to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre to host the Illawarra Hawks on Australia Day.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2025/26 - HOOPSFEST

BRISBANE BULLETS 80 (Maldonado 20, Ducas 14, Taylor 12, Holt 12)

SYDNEY KINGS 95 (Noi 24, Davis 23, Robertson 17)

BOX SCORE