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THERE were four big games in the Women’s SBL on Saturday night with the Rockingham Flames impressively beating the Willetton Tigers while the Lakeside Lightning remained unbeaten and the Mandurah Magic and Kalamunda Eastern Suns were also victorious.

Round 8 of the Women’s SBL began on Friday night with two matches that saw the Perth Redbacks defeat the Stirling Senators 82-55 and the Kalamunda Eastern Suns beat the Joondalup Wolves 78-75.

Saturday night then included a tantalising match up at Willetton Basketball Stadium that ended up with the Rockingham Flames beating the Willetton Tigers 91-56.

The Lakeside Lightning also narrowly maintained their unbeaten start to the season overcoming the defending champion Perry Lakes Hawks 71-70 with the Mandurah Magic beating the East Perth Eagles 76-46 and Kalamunda Eastern Suns defeating the Cockburn Cougars 87-62.

The Cougars and Hawks now back up on Sunday at Wally Hagan Stadium from 12pm.

FRIDAY NIGHT WOMEN’S SBL RECAP – WEEK 8 
WOMEN’S SBL PREVIEW – WEEK 8 

The Saturday night action in the Women’s SBL began with the Tigers and Flames doing battle at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

It was Rockingham who controlled the game from the outset with a 20-point to 11 first quarter. By half-time the Flames were up 48-28 and they went on to claim the 35-point victory.

The win improved the Flames to a 6-2 record on the season while the Tigers slipped to 5-2 with the loss.

For the first time this season, the Flames had all their stars together with second import Taneisha Harrison making her first appearance alongside the recently arrived D’Lesha Lloyd.

The pair delivered strong performances on Saturday night with Lloyd finishing with 22 points, six rebounds, six steals and four assists, and Harrison finishing with 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Jacinta Bourne also contributed 16 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists for the Flames with Ariana Hetherington adding 11 points and 10 boards, and Maddison Allen six points, five rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots.

Sam Norwood top-scored for the Tigers off the bench with 17 points and eight rebounds in just 20 minutes of court time.

Zoe Harper added nine points and six rebounds, Leah Cotton seven points and four boards, and Emma Gandini six points and three steals.

It was another big job ahead of the winless Eagles on Saturday night as they headed to Mandurah to take on the Magic.

Mandurah proved too strong winning by 30 points to improve to a 6-2 record on the season with East Perth falling to 0-9 with an average losing margin of 35.4 points.

Anita Brown put up another strong performance for the Magic finishing with 26 points and 13 rebounds on shooting 10/18 from the field.

Regina Palusna contributed 15 points, five steals, four rebounds, three assists and two blocks for Mandurah with Casey Mihovilovich adding 12 points, seven boards and five steals, and Rachel Halleen 12 points and seven rebounds.

Bree Fisher top-scored for East Perth with 11 points, 10 rebounds and three steals with Rose Aryang adding nine points and six boards, Akim Lual eight points and seven rebounds, Eryn Fisher seven points, six boards and three assists, and Cameron Flynn seven points and five rebounds.

The tight contest of Saturday night took place at Bendat Basketball Centre with Perry Lakes desperate for their second win of the season and to hand Lakeside its first loss of 2018.

The defending champions played their best game of the season so far despite still missing Nat Burton. The Lady Hawks were down by seven points at half-time but outscored the Lightning 38-34 in the second half.

It wasn’t quite enough with Lakeside holding on for the one-point victory to improve to 8-0 while Perry Lakes slipped to 1-7.

Two-time reigning MVP Ali Schwagmeyer finished with 26 points, eight rebounds and three assists for the Lightning with Sydnee Fipps adding 11 points and five boards despite going 0/8 from three-point territory.

Ash Grant also had 10 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots for Lakeside with Courtney Byrnes adding eight points and six boards.

Grand Final MVP Toni Farnworth delivered a big performance for Perry Lakes with 29 points, eight rebounds and five assists on shooting 12/20 from the field and 5/7 from three-point territory.

Lauren Jeffers also had 13 points, eight assists and seven rebounds with Kate Anthony contributing nine points and five boards.

The Saturday night action ended at Ray Owen Sports Centre with the Eastern Suns delivering an impressive outing to beat the Cougars by 25 points on the back of a dominant performance after trailing by four points at quarter-time.

The win backed up the victory on Friday night over the Wolves for Kalamunda who improves to 6-4 as a result with the loss seeing Cockburn slip to 2-6 before taking on Perry Lakes at home on Sunday.

Jennie Rintala was a strong force inside for Kalamunda once again finishing the night with 25 points, nine rebounds and four assists on shooting 6/13 from the floor and 12/13 from the foul line.

Alex Ciabattoni put in another strong showing too for the Eastern Suns with 15 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and two blocks with Jewel Williams contributing 13 points, four assists and three boards.

Hannah King also had 12 points and five rebounds for the Suns with Jorjah Smith contributing 11 points and four boards.

Matilda Muir top-scored for the Cougars with 16 points and 10 rebounds with Kisha Lee contributing 14 points and four boards, Brianna Moyes 12 points, four rebounds and three assists, and Taryn Priestly nine points and four assists.

WEEK 8 WOMEN’S SBL FIXTURES
FRIDAY
Perth Redbacks 82 defeated Stirling Senators 55
Joondalup Wolves 75 lost to Kalamunda Eastern Suns 78

SATURDAY
Willetton Tigers 56 lost to Rockingham Flames 91
Perry Lakes Hawks 70 lost to Lakeside Lightning 71
Mandurah Magic 76 defeated East Perth Eagles 46
Kalamunda Eastern Suns 87 defeated Cockburn Cougars 62

SUNDAY
Cockburn Cougars v Perry Lakes Hawks – Wally Hagan Stadium 12.00pm