Second half procession and late drama define Monash’s inaugural UBL home game

Monash University’s men’s and women’s teams returned home to the Clayton Campus last Thursday, for their first University Basketball League (UBL) home game since joining the competition this year.

Hosting La Trobe University, Monash’s men’s team ran out with a 84-54 win.

The women’s team looked to make it two for two for the night, but were narrowly defeated by just five points, the scoreline reading 74-79.

After a narrow loss to last season's champions the University of Tasmania in their first game, the men got off to a shaky start, going scoreless and trailing by five for the first four minutes of play, before Mitch Blackburn opened Monash’s account with a routine layup.

Captain Tom Carroll added to the score with nine points for the quarter, including two 3-pointers, which helped Monash steady the ship and go into the first break with an eight point lead.

However, La Trobe turned the tide in the second quarter thanks to a few costly Monash turnovers, with Aden Rotundo and Lachlan Summerville taking full advantage.

Despite most of the play being in Monash’s half, they were unable to turn that dominance into scoreboard pressure, whereas La Trobe seemed to be taking every chance they got.

This left Monash with work to do in the second half, now trailing by one point at the main break.

It remained an arm wrestle early in the third quarter, before some elite pressure from Monash’s Billy Barton freed up the rest of the team to score 15 unanswered points.

From there the result was a foregone conclusion, Monash were playing with a freedom and style as they soared to a commanding lead and didn’t look back, outsourcing La Trobe 28-18 in the final quarter and getting their first win of the season.

Monash men’s coach Fraser Kennedy believed that lack of conversion was to blame for the tight first half, saying that increasing their physicality and rebounding ultimately turned the game in their favour.

“We weren’t playing as bad as we thought we were, I think there were some really good patches that we weren’t getting the reward for,” Kennedy said.

“We put a lot of emphasis on rebounding in the third quarter which helped us get some second chance points and limit how many second chance points they could get.

“But we also upped our physicality as well. They were really physical in the first half and we couldn’t quite meet it.”

After defeating reigning champions the University of Tasmania in the first round, the Monash  women's team stormed out of the gate with confidence, looking quicker and cleaner than La Trobe in attack.

By the end of the first quarter, Monash were up by eight points, with captain Kassie Boorer the clear standout.

However, by the time the second quarter had started La Trobe had woken up and went on a tear of their own. They flipped  the deficit and went up by nine points, thanks to a six rebound and six point quarter from Holly Griffiths.

In the third quarter, Monash got back into the game slightly, outscoring La Trobe 21-18 and bringing the difference to just six points.

Griffiths’ five points for La Trobe in the first minute of the last quarter would nearly put the game out of reach, before Monash’s Madi Papworth and Lily Ballarin put on 16 points without reply to pull ahead by five with just four minutes left.

La Trobe would steady over the next couple of minutes and give themselves a narrow one point lead with less than thirty seconds left for the game.

Monash called a timeout shortly after being awarded a throw-in that would provide them with potentially their last chance to win the game.

Unfortunately for Monash, the throw-in resulted in a steal for La Trobe’s Tahlia Leeson, who walked the ball in for an uncontested lay-up, putting them ahead by three.

A late missed three-point attempt from Ballarin with four seconds to play was Monash’s last chance of tying up the game before La Trobe’s Jess Smith drew a foul and scored both subsequent free throws to end the match.

Monash women’s coach Conor Mathews thought the loss mainly came down to a poor performance in the second quarter, but said he was still proud of his team's ability to get back into the game.

“We actually won the first, third and fourth, but the second quarter was 8-25,” Mathews said.

“At the start of the game we had really good control of the tempo, and we were playing at our pace really well.

“La Trobe probably started taking control of the pace of the game and played a little bit slower where they could use their size a little bit more effectively.

“We got pushed out a little bit too easily by their pressure.” 

But Mathews remained optimistic despite the loss with his side showing great poise in the clinches.

“We were fantastic in the clutch last week and I thought we were great again today,” Matthews said.

“We made all the right decisions defensively to foul and do what we could to give ourselves a chance. So I'm really proud of the girls and I couldn’t fault their late-game.”

Despite the night ending on a loss, the event itself was a huge success.

The organising team set up a donut and popcorn stand, as well as a Monash themed inflatable basketball shooting game and light up reaction time challenge.

A crowd of 250 spectators witnessed Monash’s UniSport All-Star Cheer 2026 national championship winning cheerleaders supporting both teams, paired with on-court entertainment and giveaways between quarters.

This gave both matches an incredible atmosphere, with every Monash point eliciting a loud cheer that echoed around the room unlike any other home UBL crowd.