She was already the first ever captained and Darcee Garbin went on to have a block, offensive rebound and to score first for the Tasmania Jewels but that was just the beginning of what made for such a memorable first WNBL evening.
Garbin last played in the WNBL with her home state Perth Lynx back in the 2021/22 season, but her return now after three standout seasons in Hungary and then becoming a mother to daughter Rose last December is with the Jewels.
She was a natural to be named the first ever captain for Tasmania reuniting with championship coach Claudia Brassard from their Townsville Fire days, and then she wasted no time making an impact last Thursday night.
It was a night to remember in so many ways for all of Tasmania with the Jewels ending up winning 103-90 against the Geelong Venom in front of a sold out crowd at MyState Bank Arena.
Garbin wasted no time making her impact with an early block on Maddy Rocci before up the other end, she collected an offensive rebound before scoring the first ever points in Jewels history.
She ended the night with 20 points, six rebounds, three assists and two blocks on 9/17 shooting, but the night was about so much more than any individual numbers or performances.
"I've obviously played in some big games with the national team and stuff like that, but that was just unreal," Garbin said.
"I'm so glad that the girls get to experience something like that and that it's the standard we're now setting in the WNBL."
Given the game was already sold out in the build up, Garbin knew that the excitement for the Jewels joining the WNBL in Tasmania was at fever pitch.
What she wasn’t sure about was if that build up would lead to a nervous playing group, but it didn’t take long after the game to start for her to realise that she had nothing to worry about.
Whether it was first-year import Gianna Kneepkens putting up 20 points with eight rebounds and three assists or Brooke Basham with 19 points, eight rebounds, four steals and three assists or Steph Reid with 17 points and eight assists, there were plenty of weapons.
Then there was Keely Froling producing 11 points and five rebounds, and Ella Tofaeono making a physical impact including a huge screen on Bec Cole and finishing with 11 points and six rebounds.
All up, it was a very proud captain afterwards.
"It was amazing and it was really cool when the doors opened and the people started to flood in," Garbin said.
"I thought that the girls were going to be way more nervous, but to be honest I think we were more nervous for that first game that we played in Townsville.
"I think that's a credit to not only the girls, but our amazing staff. It's not only Claudia and the assistants, but it's our medical staff, our performance psych and I think we've just done so much work to make sure that we were ready for the moment and not overwhelmed by it.
"Everyone was really locked in and I didn’t think anyone was too nervous, and it was great we were then able to use that energy from the crowd."
The Jewels were happy to play at a fast pace too and tried to make it a focus to go inside first where they had an advantage with Garbin down low and with the Venom not yet having reigning Defensive Player of the Year Han Xu available.
Tasmania did end the game with 74 of their 103 points scored in the paint and Garbin liked to see that, but they will be able to mix up the way they play too throughout the season.
"That's the way we want to play, and we want to play a fast-paced game and get two feet in the paint, and see what comes from that," Garbin said.
"But obviously they're down their starting five in Han who's going to be a big help defensively for them so we saw an opportunity to attack them there when they were a little bit smaller than us inside.
"That's how we want to play by pushing the pace and hopefully keeping teams under 90 though."
Once the Jewels got back into the locker room after the emotional first victory, they were able to sing a rousing rendition of the new team song thought up by team manager Emma Suckling and assistant coach Jack Fleming.
Garbin did her best to keep that a secret from the playing group until they had a first win to sing about.
"I think it was our team manager, Emma, who comes from a bit of a footy background and her and our assistant coach Jack collabed on that," Garbin said.
"We were talking about it yesterday, but I didn’t want to tell the girls because I didn’t want it to be a jinx on the team so I'm pretty happy with how they came out and got it done straight away after the win."
The Jewels now turn their attention to a first ever away game in the WNBL this Thursday night when they head across Bass Strait to face the Southside Melbourne Flyers.
While Garbin liked a lot of what the Jewels did first up, she does think they can improve defensively.
"We've got a week until the next game and it's good to get the first one out and over and done with, and it would have been a long week if the result was the other way around," Garbin said.
"Obviously we're happy to score over 100 points in our first game, but I'm looking at Geelong having 90 and I'm sure there's a lot of things that we can clean up defensively before taking on Southside in Melbourne next."
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