Captain Darcee Garbin set the tone with an early block, offensive rebound and the first points with the Tasmania Jewels going on to delight the sold out home crowd at MyState Bank Arena to celebrate their WNBL debut beating Geelong Venom 103-90.
Thursday night in Hobart marked the first time in 30 years that the state of Tasmania was represented in the WNBL and a sold out crowd was on hand to mark the occasion with the Jewels playing host to the Venom.
It also doubled as the WNBL season-opener too and after Garbin set the tone early with that big block on Maddy Rocci and then scoring the Jewels' first point up the other end after an offensive rebound in her first game as a mother in the league, the home team remained on top.
While Geelong did fight the game out valiantly, Tasmania continued to have all the answers to lead by as much as 24 points early in the third quarter and going on to secure the 13-point victory to make the perfect start to life in the WNBL.
The Jewels ended the night pulling down 22 offensive rebounds to 13 from the Venom which helped them to get up an extra seven shot attempts and eight more free throws.
Captain Garbin ended up with 20 points, six rebounds, three assist sand two blocks with 9/17 shooting from the field.
Import sharpshooter Gianna Kneepkens also had 20 points, eight rebounds and three assists on 7/11 shooting with Brooke Basham shining in her starting back court role with 19 points, eight rebounds, four steals and three assists.
Steph Reid delivered 17 points and eight assists with Keely Froling contributing 11 points and five rebounds, Ella Tofaeono 11 points and six boards along with a thunderous terror screen on Bec Cole, Mia Jacobs three points and seven rebounds, and Katie Deeble two points.
It was only fitting that the Jewels started their time in the WNBL with captain Darcee Garbin blocking a shot up one end on Maddy Rocci before then scoring up the other end following an offensive rebound.
Tasmania were able to ride that momentum from there to go into the quarter-time break leading 29-20 on the back of shooting 11/21 from the field with six points each to Gianna Kneepkens, Brooke Basham and Steph Reid.
The Jewels took further control through the second frame outscoring Geelong 28 points to 18 to go back into the half-time break with things having gone exactly to script in their debut appearance to be leading 57-38.
Geelong did manage to work their way back into the contest in the third quarter with 29 points to 23 from the Jewels, but still Tasmania were leading 80-67 by three quarter-time.
That was with captain Garbin up to 18 points while Kneepkens and Basham both had 16.
Tasmania again started the final quarter well to push back out to a 17-point lead to be back in control and then end up securing their slice of history by winning their first WNBL game by 13 points.
The Jewels will now make another piece of history next Thursday night when they play their first WNBL road game taking on the Southside Melbourne Flyers before returning to Tasmania and playing at the Silverdome in Launceston against the Sydney Flames on Saturday October 31.
WNBL SEASON 2026/27 | ROUND 1
TASMANIA JEWELS 103 defeated Geelong Venom 90
MyState Bank Arena, Thursday October 15
Darcee Garbin | 20 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks
Gianna Kneepkens | 20 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists
Brooke Basham | 19 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists
Steph Reid | 17 points, 8 assists
Keely Froling | 11 points, 5 rebounds
Ella Tofaeono | 11 points, 6 rebounds
Mia Jacobs | 3 points, 7 rebounds
Katie Deeble | 2 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist
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