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FOR the fourth time already this Men’s SBL season, the Joondalup Wolves took the best from their opponents and were able to assert their class and authority, this time beating the East Perth Eagles 93-84 on Friday night.

It was always set to be a fascinating contest at Mirrabooka’s Herb Graham Recreation Centre on Friday night with both East Perth and Joondalup entering the clash undefeated after the opening two rounds of the 2019 season.

It was always set to be a fascinating contest at Mirrabooka’s Herb Graham Recreation Centre on Friday night with both East Perth and Joondalup entering the clash undefeated after the opening two rounds of the 2019 season.

The Eagles are again being coached by the man who led them to a championship, Adam Forde, and went on to win well against the South West Slammers and Cockburn Cougars to open the new season.

The Wolves are up and going in the new season, though, on the back of appearing in the past four Grand Finals. The Wolfpack started with strong wins over the Perry Lakes Hawks, Goldfields Giants and Warwick Senators over the opening two rounds setting the tone for Friday night.

The Eagles started impressively too on their new home floor taking it right up to the Wolves, leading 24-21 by quarter-time.

They continued that during the second term and went into the half-time break with a 52-46 advantage and plenty of momentum after a string of steals and turnovers largely forced by exciting new point guard Cameron Williams.

But the Wolves made the adjustments at half-time and controlled the game most of the way through the second half highlighted by their 30-point third period to end up winning by nine points to improve to 4-0 on the season.

Kevin Davis showed just what a difference-maker he can be for the Wolves on his return to the club, putting in his best performance of the season. He was clearly energised against the team he spent 2017 with and was a force on the glass and above the rim especially.

He finished the night with 23 points, 17 rebounds, four assists and four steals, with 12 of his boards coming on the offensive end.

Ridell Camidge continued his impressive start to his SBL career with the combo guard delivering 22 points, six rebounds and two steals with Earnest Ross producing 21 points, six boards, four assists and three steals.

Captain and 423-game veteran Seb Salinas is another to start the season impressively for the Wolfpack with 12 points.

Sunday Dech top-scored for the Eagles with 32 points, seven rebounds and two assists on 12/22 shooting from the field and 4/10 from three-point territory.

Captain Drew Williamson finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and three assists for East Perth with Cameron Williams contributing 11 points, six boards, five assists and five steals, Andrej Donlagic nine points and three rebounds, and Jermaine Malie eight points.

Eagles coach Adam Forde was happy with the way his team took it up to a Joondalup clearly up and firing early in the season, but he would have liked to see his players back themselves in more to take shots with the game up for grabs.

“The main thing is that we’ve gone out with a different style of play and we picked it early on with the line-up that we had and the guys we had, and we have a lot of young guys coming through, that coming into the season we’d have to deal with waves of momentum with how we played,” Forde said.

“I liked the fact that we were competitive, but I felt like the biggest downfall was that once we realised we were still in touch and it started to get closer to the end, we were turning down shots that I wanted them taking.

“They were confident taking them in the first half because they have that carefree attitude, but then it changed. That will come when they play more together and the maturity starts to grow, and that collective group intelligence starts to build.

“I love that they maintained their competitiveness and that now they are upstairs and disappointed. You can’t ask for more than that and now we have a game down in Mandurah to ride that momentum into.”

East Perth has little time to stew over the result now heading to Mandurah to take on the Magic on Saturday night who are looking to ride the form of Shaun Stewart to make it two wins on the trot.

“It’s a different outfit obviously to the Wolves and they have been sitting there waiting all week for us. But we want to come out and play our style of play, but we will go a little deeper into our bench and be sharper with our rotations,” Forde said.

“They’ve got a great guard who’s averaging like 33 points a game so we’ll put some focus on him but we don’t want to allow someone else to step up and drop 20 or 25.

“The game plan for us doesn’t change, we want to control that tempo and pace, it’s just a matter of us making those layups and getting to the foul line.”

The Eagles are again being coached by the man who led them to a championship, Adam Forde, and went on to win well against the South West Slammers and Cockburn Cougars to open the new season.

The Wolves are up and going in the new season, though, on the back of appearing in the past four Grand Finals. The Wolfpack started with strong wins over the Perry Lakes Hawks, Goldfields Giants and Warwick Senators over the opening two rounds setting the tone for Friday night.

The Eagles started impressively too on their new home floor taking it right up to the Wolves, leading 24-21 by quarter-time.

They continued that during the second term and went into the half-time break with a 52-46 advantage and plenty of momentum after a string of steals and turnovers largely forced by exciting new point guard Cameron Williams.

But the Wolves made the adjustments at half-time and controlled the game most of the way through the second half highlighted by their 30-point third period to end up winning by nine points to improve to 4-0 on the season.

Eagles coach Adam Forde was happy with the way his team took it up to a Joondalup clearly up and firing early in the season, but he would have liked to see his players back themselves in more to take shots with the game up for grabs.

“The main thing is that we’ve gone out with a different style of play and we picked it early on with the line-up that we had and the guys we had, and we have a lot of young guys coming through, that coming into the season we’d have to deal with waves of momentum with how we played,” Forde said.

“I liked the fact that we were competitive, but I felt like the biggest downfall was that once we realised we were still in touch and it started to get closer to the end, we were turning down shots that I wanted them taking.

“They were confident taking them in the first half because they have that carefree attitude, but then it changed. That will come when they play more together and the maturity starts to grow, and that collective group intelligence starts to build.

“I love that they maintained their competitiveness and that now they are upstairs and disappointed. You can’t ask for more than that and now we have a game down in Mandurah to ride that momentum into.”

East Perth has little time to stew over the result now heading to Mandurah to take on the Magic on Saturday night who are looking to ride the form of Shaun Stewart to make it two wins on the trot.

“It’s a different outfit obviously to the Wolves and they have been sitting there waiting all week for us. But we want to come out and play our style of play, but we will go a little deeper into our bench and be sharper with our rotations,” Forde said.

“They’ve got a great guard who’s averaging like 33 points a game so we’ll put some focus on him but we don’t want to allow someone else to step up and drop 20 or 25.

“The game plan for us doesn’t change, we want to control that tempo and pace, it’s just a matter of us making those layups and getting to the foul line.”

WEEK 3 MEN’S SBL FIXTURES
FRIDAY
Willetton Tigers 62 lost to Kalamunda Eastern Suns 88
Lakeside Lightning 96 defeated Texture WA Perth Redbacks 67
CMTG East Perth Eagles 84 lost to Chambers Franklyn Joondalup City Wolves 93

SATURDAY
Prestige Honda Melville Cockburn Cougars v Sinclair McDonald’s Rockingham Flames – Wally Hagan Stadium 7.00pm
Northern Star Resources Goldfields Giants v Bethanie Warwick Senators – Niels Hansen Basketball Centre 7.30pm
Print Sync South West Slammers v Willetton Tigers – Eaton Recreation Centre 8.00pm
Mandurah Magic v CMTG East Perth Eagles – Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre 8.00pm
Texture WA Perth Redbacks v ID Athletic Perry Lakes Hawks – Belmont Oasis 8.00pm
Kalamunda Eastern Suns v Quadrio Earthmoving Geraldton Buccaneers – Ray Owen Sports Centre 8.30pm

SUNDAY
ID Athletic Perry Lakes Hawks v Quadrio Earthmoving Geraldton Buccaneers – Bendat Basketball Centre 12.00pm