Aussie men go to 5-0 at Comm Games

The Australian Gangurrus outscored the opponents 42-16 across two more 3x3 games at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in their second day of action to remain undefeated including another 16 points from Sam McDaniel and 10 from Jonah Antonio.

All four players representing Australia in Glasgow 2026 have strong NBL links with Jesse Wagstaff the games record holder with the Perth Wildcats, McDaniel signed to the Brisbane Bullets still for NBL27, and Antonio having played with the Cairns Taipans and Illawarra Hawks, and Jarred Bairstow at the Bullets, Wildcats and Tasmania JackJumpers.

They opened up the Commonwealth Games back on Friday beating New Zealand 21-15, Nigeria 21-15 and Scotland 21-14 before backing up on Sunday with strong showings also to defeat Guyana 21-11 and Cayman Islands 21-5.

That has the Gangurrus through to the semi finals which will take place Wednesday in Scotland.

The first game for the Australian men's team on Sunday night saw them take on Guyana and they did find themselves down 6-3 early before a couple of two-point bombs from Wagstaff had them back on top 8-6.

Antonio hit another from the outside to stretch the lead to 15-9 and eventually he knocked down another from downtown to secure the 21-11 win for Australia having outscored Guyana 18 points to five after that early deficit.

Antonio top scored for the Gangurrus with eight points with 4/10 two-point shooting while Wagstaff added seven points and six rebounds, McDaniel four and Bairstow two to go with four rebounds including two offensive and two assists.

Next up for the men's Gangurrus was a clash with Cayman Islands and the scores were tied at 4-4 early before Australia scored the next eight points including shots from the outside by McDaniel and Antonio to be up 12-4.

The Gangurrus then scored the last nine points with McDaniel sealing the win by getting them to 21 points with a shot from beyond the arc to secure the 21-5 victory to improve to the 5-0 record.

McDaniel had a big performance against Cayman Islands scoring 12 points including going 4/4 from the outside with Bairstow contributing four points, Wagstaff three with four rebounds, and Antonio two.

The other Australian teams were also in action again on Sunday night including the women who had two more matches where they kept their winning run going defeating Cayman Islands 21-3 and Uganda 21-9.

Emma Clarke didn’t play in the first game but Amy Atwell stepped for 11 points in the win over Cayman Islands with Lara McSpadden adding seven before she also scored 11 against Uganda while Clarke did play and had three points, five rebounds and two assists.

The men's wheelchair team then scored their first win of the Commonwealth Games bouncing back from the loss to England by beating Kenya 21-5 with Tomas Klein scoring eight points and Eithen Leard six while Tom O'Neill-Thorne had four points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

The women's wheelchair team also won their first game of Glasgow 2026 after losing first up to England and beat South Africa 20-5. That included 10 points, 12 rebounds and five assists from Georgia Munro-Cook.

Results

Australian men

Game 1: Australia 21 - New Zealand 15
‍Sam McDaniel: 8 points, 6 rebounds, 2 key assists
Jonah Antonio: 8 points, 1 rebound
Jesse Wagstaff: 4 points, 2 rebounds
Jarred Bairstow: 1 point, 2 key assists

Game 2: Australia 21 - Nigeria 15
‍Jonah Antonio: 12 points
Sam McDaniel: 4 points, 5 rebounds, 1 key assist
Jesse Wagstaff: 4 points, 2 rebounds
Jarred Bairstow: 1 point, 4 rebounds

Game 3: Australia 21 - Scotland 14
‍Sam McDaniel: 10 points, 4 rebounds, 2 key assists
Jonah Antonio: 4 points, 4 rebounds
Jarred Bairstow: 4 points, 2 rebounds, 1 key assist
Jesse Wagstaff: 3 points, 8 rebounds, 1 key assist

Game 4: Australia 21 - Guyana 11
‍Jonah Antonio: 8 points, 2 rebounds
Jesse Wagstaff: 7 points, 6 rebounds, 2 key assists
Sam McDaniel: 4 points, 2 drives
Jarred Bairstow: 2 points, 4 rebounds, 2 key assists

Game 5: Australia 21 - Cayman Islands 5
‍Sam McDaniel: 12 points, 1 rebound, 2 key assists, 1 drive
Jarred Bairstow: 4 points
Jesse Wagstaff: 3 points, 4 rebounds, 1 key assist
Jonah Antonio: 2 points

The schedule

All times AEST. All teams compete in Pool A.

Australia v New Zealand – Friday, July 24 - 7:00pm
Australia v Nigeria – Saturday, July 25 - 2:25am
Australia v Scotland – Saturday, July 25 - 5:40am
Australia v Guyana – Sunday, July 26 - 11:50pm
Australia v Cayman Islands – Monday, July 27 - 5:20am
Semi Final: Australia v TBC - Wednesday, July 29 - 9:00pm