Pink perfection: Norton's 400th a celebration for Tiana

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“Oh, what a night” for Mitch Norton ($160,600), the Brisbane Bullets and the late, inspirational Tiana Mangakahia.

Brisbane point guard Norton, 33, played and won his 400th NBL game as the Bullets secured a tough home win against the South East Melbourne Phoenix, and Tiana’s Pink Hoops raised a bunch of money for breast cancer awareness.

Norton started and finished with 11 points and nine assists, plus a rebound and a steal, in 27:11, replacing injured import guard Arnas Velicka ($277,000) as the Bullets kept the Phoenix at arm's length for a solid 115-105 win at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

“Yeah, a win in a milestone game is really cool,” Norton said.

“It gives you a chance to reflect a little bit. But it's all about recovery right now, and we've got to move on to the next job.

That's what excites me the most, this group. We're in there lifting now, getting better and ready for our next training session.

“Anytime you step on the court, you want to contribute in a good, positive manner.

“I'm glad I was able to do that tonight.

“(It was an) amazing job from Tough for T.

“Amazing job from the Brisbane Bullets. To be able to sell the merchandise in our stands here and auction these off, because it's available through Tough for T.

“Make sure you go online and bid for them because it really goes to a special place. Breast cancer impacts a lot of people and a lot of families. Anything you can do to help goes a long way.”

Basketball star Mangakahia passed away on September 11, 2025, aged 30. Pink Hoops is now, and always will, her legacy in the WNBL, NBL and NBL1.

Mitch Norton: every NBL season

Guard · No. 8 · 184cm · 90kg · born 1 April 1993
16 seasons with four clubs · 400 games · 2,904 points · 1,066 assists
SuperCoach NBL: $160,600 start, $120,100 now, ▼ $40,500

Basics Shooting Defence & fouls All

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Season ↕	GP ↕	MIN ↕	PTS ↕	REB ↕	AST ↕	FG ↕	FG% ↕	3P ↕	3P% ↕	FT ↕	FT% ↕	STL ↕	BLK ↕	TO ↕	PF ↕
2011-12Crocodiles	5	6.1	2.2	0.8	0.2	5-13	38.5	0-6	0.0	1-3	33.3	0.2	0.2	0.6	0.8
2012-13Crocodiles	28	14.5	4.1	1.0	0.9	35-87	40.2	10-33	30.3	36-56	64.3	0.3	0.0	0.9	1.8
2013-14Crocodiles	27	19.1	6.9	1.4	2.6	44-116	37.9	21-52	40.4	77-87	88.5	0.3	0.0	1.2	1.4
2014-15Crocodiles	28	20.2	7.9	2.0	2.9	77-188	41.0	22-70	31.4	44-65	67.7	0.3	0.0	2.4	2.5
2015-16Crocodiles	28	23.8	8.9	2.7	2.8	85-205	41.5	22-68	32.4	57-75	76.0	0.6	0.1	1.5	3.2
2016-17Hawks	31	21.0	8.2	1.9	2.9	80-169	47.3	16-46	34.8	77-96	80.2	1.0	0.1	1.3	2.5
2017-18Hawks	19	21.6	7.8	1.4	2.4	49-125	39.2	16-46	34.8	34-49	69.4	0.8	0.2	0.9	2.6
2018-19Wildcats	27	20.0	8.3	2.0	2.5	68-167	40.7	17-58	29.3	71-84	84.5	0.7	0.0	1.3	2.3
2019-20Wildcats	34	19.8	6.9	1.9	2.6	80-205	39.0	20-63	31.7	54-66	81.8	0.6	0.0	0.9	2.4
2020-21Wildcats	41	24.1	8.2	3.5	3.6	109-254	42.9	17-48	35.4	103-132	78.0	0.8	0.0	1.5	2.3
2021-22Wildcats	18	23.8	9.6	2.5	3.7	59-118	50.0	14-39	35.9	41-56	73.2	0.5	0.1	1.1	2.1
2022-23Wildcats	28	17.7	5.1	1.7	1.9	47-113	41.6	9-40	22.5	39-49	79.6	0.6	0.0	1.1	2.2
2023-24Bullets	28	22.6	7.1	2.2	2.7	66-161	41.0	18-50	36.0	49-68	72.1	0.8	0.0	1.3	2.7
2024-25Bullets	29	27.2	7.4	2.1	2.9	80-179	44.7	23-65	35.4	32-42	76.2	0.8	0.1	1.6	3.3
2025-26Bullets	23	25.4	7.5	2.4	3.3	48-162	29.6	12-66	18.2	65-75	86.7	0.7	0.1	1.6	2.7
2026-27Bullets	6	14.6	3.8	1.3	2.7	8-23	34.8	3-12	25.0	4-5	80.0	0.3	0.2	0.8	1.7
Career	400	21.1	7.3	2.1	2.7	940-2285	41.1	240-762	31.5	784-1008	77.8	0.6	0.1	1.3	2.4

Per-game averages, finals included. The 2026-27 row is the season so far. Brisbane’s win over the Phoenix on 15 October was his 400th NBL game. His best scoring season was 2021-22, at 9.6 points a game.

Where these numbers come from

Every figure is the NBL’s own, taken season by season from the league’s statistics on 16 October 2026. Season figures include finals as well as home-and-away games.

PF counts every foul, as the league’s player page does. The career shooting line is career makes divided by career attempts, not an average of season percentages.

The club shown is the club he played for that season. Off-season clubs outside the NBL are not included. SuperCoach prices are the start-of-season price and the current price; tap any column heading to sort.

Brisbane head coach Will Weaver now faces an anxious wait before the Bullets hit the road against Tasmania on October 21, then face Illawarra three days later on October 24.

Back-up centre Jacob Holt ($176,300) and starting centre Tyrell Harrison ($336,100) left the game in the fourth quarter, a couple of minutes apart, with ankle injuries. Neither returned. Harrison’s looked less severe than Holt’s.

“Yes and no,” Weaver said when asked whether he had concerns and an update.

“Yes, I'm concerned about their ankles, and no [I don't have an update].”

Weaver heaped praise on his 400-game NBL veteran in the post-game press conference.

“Norto's incredible in all the ways that we, I think, appreciate as a league,” he said.

“I don't want to take that for granted, but it's emblematic of the type of people that Norto wants to be teammates with, the people of Brisbane want to cheer for, and the people that I want to work with.

“If everybody could have the same head on their shoulders as this guy, that would be fantastic.

“The way that our group approaches things and isn't focused on who's in and who's out, and is focused on what we need to do to be successful as a group, is what's putting us in position to compete and have a chance to win every night.

“Whether we win or not sometimes comes down to bad luck.

“Norto certainly leads the charge in the consistency of those habits.”

Brisbane moved to 3-3 on the season while the Phoenix dug a deeper hole at 2-5. The visitors were without Jordan Hunter, who was back in Melbourne after the birth of his first child, and injured back-up big Hunter Goodrick.

“First off, Brisbane played a really good game with maybe their best player out,” Phoenix head coach Josh King said.

“So, very good performance by them. Taking nothing away from them, but not a very good performance by us.

“There's a bunch of stats that jump out on the sheet. First and foremost, 115 points in a 40-minute game. We just can't expect to win basketball games giving up that amount of points.

“They had more assists than we had rebounds. Tough to win in that.

“We didn't contain the ball. We overhelped. We didn't really perform to the level that I think we're capable of on defence.

“But that starts from the beginning of the game, giving up 30 points in the first quarter.

“We cut it to one at halftime, and I really thought we were kind of in a good position.

“We found a way to get a couple of stops late in the second quarter to give ourselves a little momentum going into halftime.

“Then, to start the second half, I believe they had 20 points in the first three or so minutes, and I believe we had four turnovers out of our first five possessions, which contributed to that.

“From there, we were just kind of chasing our tail.

“Very, very unhappy with our performance tonight.”

Watch

NBL27

Brisbane Bullets vs South East Melbourne Phoenix | Round 5 Highlights

Watch the highlights as the Brisbane Bullets take on South East Melbourne Phoenix in Round 5 of NBL27 on October 15, 2026.

What you need to know

• The Brisbane Bullets beat the South East Melbourne Phoenix 115-105 at Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Round 5 of NBL27 on Thursday, October 15, 2026.
• Brisbane won three of the four quarters, 30-24, 34-29 and 25-21, and led at every break, even after the Phoenix took the second quarter 31-26 to close within 56-55 at half-time.
• Max Mackinnon ($200,000) led Brisbane with 24 points, eight rebounds and eight assists on 9-from-18, while Angus Glover ($191,700) top-scored for the Phoenix with 27 off the bench on 9-from-14.
• Brisbane made 44 field goals to 34 and assisted on 31 of them, against 17 assists for the Phoenix.
• Brisbane won the boards 47-30, including 18 offensive rebounds to 11, which outweighed a free-throw line the Phoenix owned 26-from-28 to 17-from-23.

Brisbane Bullets

• Max Mackinnon ($200,000) top-scored with 24 points, eight rebounds and eight assists on 9-from-18, including 4-from-8 from three.
• Jaylin Williams ($277,000) added 19 points and six rebounds on 8-from-11, including 3-from-5 from three, and finished a game-high plus-27.
• Nate Hinton ($277,000) had 16 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals on 7-from-15.
• Tyrell Harrison ($336,100) scored 14 points with seven rebounds and four assists on 7-from-10.
• Lat Mayen ($69,000) scored 14 off the bench in 20 minutes on 3-from-4, with 7-from-8 at the free-throw line.
• Jacob Holt ($176,300) added 13 points in 12 minutes on 4-from-6, including 4-from-7 at the line.
• Mitch Norton ($160,600) handed out a game-high nine assists to go with 11 points on 4-from-6.
• Brisbane shot 44-from-79 from the field, 10-from-29 from three and 17-from-23 at the line, with 47 rebounds (18 offensive), 31 assists and 14 turnovers.

South East Melbourne Phoenix

• Angus Glover ($191,700) top-scored with 27 points off the bench in 23 minutes on 9-from-14, including 3-from-8 from three and 6-from-6 at the line.
• Skylar Mays ($277,000) scored 20 points with six assists and three steals on 6-from-15, and went 8-from-10 at the line.
• Nathan Sobey ($379,600) added 15 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals on 4-from-10, including 6-from-6 at the line.
• Dash Daniels ($115,000) scored 12 points off the bench on 5-from-11, including 2-from-6 from three.
• Tanner Krebs ($150,300) had 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds on 5-from-8.
• D'Shawn Schwartz ($277,000) scored eight points on 2-from-7, both of his field goals from three.
• Akech Aliir ($125,300) had seven points, four rebounds, three blocks and two steals in 25 minutes off the bench.
• South East Melbourne shot 34-from-73 from the field, 11-from-37 from three and 26-from-28 at the line, with 30 rebounds (11 offensive), 17 assists and 12 turnovers.