18-YEAR-OLD Aaron Gashaw made the most of his limited court time in the 18th and final round of the 2025 NBL1 West Men’s season, coming off the bench for an excellent patch of play as his Willetton Tigers defeated the South West Slammers over the weekend.

Heading into the postseason, the Tigers’ matchup in Round 18 marked a final tuneup before the pointy end of their championship hunt. Having locked in fourth spot, Willetton would be coming up against a Slammers side that had won just the one game in 2025, and was looking forward to resetting over the offseason, so it was the perfect opportunity for the Tigers to head into the finals with some wind in their sails.

It was not a dominant quarter of play or massive stretch of scoring that got the Tigers to their hefty win, but a steady build of offence that helped their lead to an unassailable margin over the course of 40 minutes. Willetton won all four quarters en route to a 17-point win at Eaton Rec Centre on Friday night.

Although some of his star teammates may have posted bigger numbers, no one had a better impact per second of court time than Gashaw, who showed he is worthy of minutes in the finals if the team needs a scoring boost.

South West Slammers (92) def. Willetton Tigers (109)

Aaron Gashaw – 13 points, five rebounds, one assist

In less than 10 minutes of playing time, Gashaw managed to make every post a winner, producing an outstanding cameo in the second half to put forth his case for playing time in the Tigers’ upcoming postseason campaign.

He was not injected into the game until the third quarter, and although the Tigers were holding onto their lead, they only had an 11-point buffer at that point, and it was still game on. Gashaw was brought on to add a different dynamic to the team’s offence, and he could not have done a better job at changing his team’s output on that side of the ball.

Gashaw was able to make an impact almost immediately, nailing his first attempt of the field in the form of a nice midrange jumpshot to stretch the lead out even further. The youngster backed it up with a nice cutting layup on the following possession to show that he did not need much time and space to find the bottom of the net.

His passing ability was on display when he found teammate Thomas Musumeci on the drive with a nice dish to get others involved as well. Gashaw’s knack for scoring across all three levels was demonstrated to close out the quarter, nailing a three-pointer to post seven points in just four minutes of playing time in a scoring blitz.

He was not done yet, staying in the game to start the fourth term, and showed his natural scoring ability by following up his missed layup with a nice putback tip-in. After spending a few minutes on the bench, he returned to the fold for the final minutes of the contest, and continued to find success attacking the paint, nailing another pair of layups on the drive to round out the game as a remarkably efficient performer on the offensive end.

Gashaw finished the match with 13 points and five rebounds in just nine minutes and 41 seconds of court time in one of the more memorable scoring bursts of the 2025 NBL1 West Men’s season, shooting 6/7 from the field and nailing his sole three-point attempt. It could not have been a clearer case to the Willetton coaching staff that he is worth playing in the postseason, and could be a wildcard for the Tigers in the coming weeks.