news

EASTER Thursday action in the Men’s SBL sees six matches take place including a tantalising match up between the Joondalup Wolves and Rockingham Flames along with the Mandurah Magic and South West Slammers locking horns desperate for a win.

Every Men’s SBL team will be in action on Thursday night as part of the Easter Round with the Geraldton Buccaneers and Goldfields Giants having the bye ahead of taking on one another twice next weekend firstly in Kalgoorlie and then Geraldton.

All six matches on Thursday night have fascinating aspects to them with each to tip-off at 8.30pm.

That includes the Perry Lakes Hawks hosting the Willetton Tigers with Willetton vice-captain Damien Scott celebrating his 250th SBL appearance.

The Cockburn Cougars also play host to the Lakeside Lightning while the Joondalup Wolves play the Rockingham Flames, the East Perth Eagles face the Kalamunda Eastern Suns, the Warwick Senators battle the Perth Redbacks, and the Mandurah Magic take on the South West Slammers.

TALLER, LONGER GROUP GIVE SENATORS A NEW LOOK
PERSISTENCE KEY FOR MAGIC GETTING BACK ON TRACK
PLENTY FOR WOLFPACK TO BE PROUD OF IN ROUND 5
ROUND 5 MEN’S SBL RECAP

All six match ups in the Men’s SBL on Easter Thursday should make for tremendous viewing, starting with the defending champion Perry Lakes hosting Willetton at Bendat Basketball Centre.

The Hawks are in some tremendous form now having won their past four games since the arrival of Perth Wildcats NBL championship winner Clint Steindl.

Despite now being without Lochlan Cummings, they have plenty of weapons coming into the clash with the Tigers on the back of handing Joondalup their first loss of the season last Saturday night at HBF Arena.

The Tigers come into the game at 3-4 and having lost their past two games to the Senators and Eastern Suns, but they have the talent to turn it around on the back of imports Mo Barrow and Marcanvis Hymon, and Jackson Hussey and Damien Scott.

Speaking of Scott, he will be playing the 250th game of his SBL career and while he’s looking forward to celebrating the milestone and doing it at Bendat Basketball Centre, he knows how tough the Hawks are going to be to overcome.

“They just keep adding people and getting better. They’ve lost Lochie Cummings but they have Steindl now so they aren’t sure of a couple of good players that’s for sure,” Scott said.

“I don’t mind playing at Bendat though. There’s a few opposition courts I don’t mind playing at and especially the ones that feel a bit more open, which is what it’s like at Perry Lakes and Warwick.

“So it tends to be where there are the brand new courts and you feel like you can jump a couple of centimetres higher on those courts without trying.

“I really enjoy playing there and the facility is nice obviously, and I spent four or five years of my life there when I was with the Wildcats so I know it well.

“It would be one of my favourite places to play even though Perry Lakes are a tough team to play against, but hopefully it’s friendly to me this week and it’s a memorable night for us.”

East Perth and Kalamunda are two teams locked in the battle for spots in the bottom section of the top eight ahead of their clash at Herb Graham Recreation Centre.

The Eagles come into the game at 4-3 coming off a tight win against the Slammers last week while the Eastern Suns are 3-5 having lost at home to the Wolves on Sunday after lost also on the road to the Cougars on Friday night.

The game will also see Corey Easley play for the Suns against the Eagles for the first time since switching clubs in the off-season.

The Cougars also bring some good form into their clash with the Lightning at Wally Hagan Stadium.

Cockburn lost its opening four games of the season but had a double-win Round 5 with wins at home over the Eastern Suns and away to the Slammers.

That saw Cockburn improve to a 2-4 record on the season coming into their clash with Lakeside who sit in third position on the table at 4-1 entering the round.

Lakeside bounced back from its first loss of the season beating Willetton 89-78 last Saturday night.

The game will also see new Cougars players Hayden Bell and Matt Vinci play against the Lightning for the first time.

HBF Arena will play host to what looms as a tantalising match up with the Wolves hosting the Flames on Thursday.

There has been quite a rivalry built between the two clubs and Greg Hire’s return for Rockingham to take on his former team at Joondalup is sure to be a lightning rod once more.

Both teams come into the game in impressive form too with the Wolves bouncing back from their first loss of the season to Perry Lakes on Saturday night to beat Kalamunda on Sunday to improve to a 6-1 record.

The Flames come into the round at 4-2 on the back of successive home-away wins over the Goldfields Giants in the absence of Hire.

Based on their meeting late last season at HBF Arena, this has all the hallmarks of one of the games of the season and early season bragging rights are right on the line.

All six match ups in the Men’s SBL on Easter Thursday should make for tremendous viewing, starting with the defending champion Perry Lakes hosting Willetton at Bendat Basketball Centre.

The Hawks are in some tremendous form now having won their past four games since the arrival of Perth Wildcats NBL championship winner Clint Steindl.

Despite now being without Lochlan Cummings, they have plenty of weapons coming into the clash with the Tigers on the back of handing Joondalup their first loss of the season last Saturday night at HBF Arena.

The Tigers come into the game at 3-4 and having lost their past two games to the Senators and Eastern Suns, but they have the talent to turn it around on the back of imports Mo Barrow and Marcanvis Hymon, and Jackson Hussey and Damien Scott.

Speaking of Scott, he will be playing the 250th game of his SBL career and while he’s looking forward to celebrating the milestone and doing it at Bendat Basketball Centre, he knows how tough the Hawks are going to be to overcome.

“They just keep adding people and getting better. They’ve lost Lochie Cummings but they have Steindl now so they aren’t sure of a couple of good players that’s for sure,” Scott said.

“I don’t mind playing at Bendat though. There’s a few opposition courts I don’t mind playing at and especially the ones that feel a bit more open, which is what it’s like at Perry Lakes and Warwick.

“So it tends to be where there are the brand new courts and you feel like you can jump a couple of centimetres higher on those courts without trying.

“I really enjoy playing there and the facility is nice obviously, and I spent four or five years of my life there when I was with the Wildcats so I know it well.

“It would be one of my favourite places to play even though Perry Lakes are a tough team to play against, but hopefully it’s friendly to me this week and it’s a memorable night for us.”

East Perth and Kalamunda are two teams locked in the battle for spots in the bottom section of the top eight ahead of their clash at Herb Graham Recreation Centre.

The Eagles come into the game at 4-3 coming off a tight win against the Slammers last week while the Eastern Suns are 3-5 having lost at home to the Wolves on Sunday after beating the Tigers on the road on Friday night.

The game will also see Corey Easley play for the Suns against the Eagles for the first time since switching clubs in the off-season.

The Cougars also bring some good form into their clash with the Lightning at Wally Hagan Stadium.

Cockburn lost its opening four games of the season but had a double-win Round 5 with wins at home over the Eastern Suns and away to the Slammers.

That saw Cockburn improve to a 2-4 record on the season coming into their clash with Lakeside who sit in third position on the table at 4-1 entering the round.

Lakeside bounced back from its first loss of the season beating Willetton 89-78 last Saturday night.

The game will also see new Cougars players Hayden Bell and Matt Vinci play against the Lightning for the first time.

HBF Arena will play host to what looms as a tantalising match up with the Wolves hosting the Flames on Thursday.

There has been quite a rivalry built between the two clubs and Greg Hire’s return for Rockingham to take on his former team at Joondalup is sure to be a lightning rod once more.

Both teams come into the game in impressive form too with the Wolves bouncing back from their first loss of the season to Perry Lakes on Saturday night to beat Kalamunda on Sunday to improve to a 6-1 record.

The Flames come into the round at 4-2 on the back of successive home-away wins over the Goldfields Giants in the absence of Hire.

Based on their meeting late last season at HBF Arena, this has all the hallmarks of one of the games of the season and early season bragging rights are right on the line.

Joondalup coach Ben Ettridge is looking forward to the occasion on Easter Thursday against the Flames.

“We hope a lot of people come out to watch and it’s developing into a bit of a rivalry even though we didn’t play them in the finals last year, we did play them late in the season and that was a great game,” Ettridge said.

“They’ve tooled up by bringing Greg back and they’ve got Ritchart, Boof and a lot of guys flying around doing great things. It will be interesting how it turns out on Thursday.”

Two teams desperate for a win then lock horns at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre with the Magic hosting the Slammers.

Mandurah started the season reasonably well with two tight losses to Lakeside and Kalamunda before breaking through for a good win on the road to the Eastern Suns.

Just as it looked like they had turned the corner they have lost their past three games by a combined 129 points against East Perth, Perry Lakes and Warwick entering Thursday night’s home clash.

Meanwhile, the Slammers remain winless in 2019 in seven attempts but if Brian Voelkel, Tyler Livingston and Michael Lay can all play well together in Mandurah on Thursday they will like their chances of breaking their duck going into the Easter break.

“I want to see more of what I saw against the Senators in terms of the effort first and foremost,” Magic coach Aaron Trahair said of the game.

“Hopefully we can just tidy up the turnovers and start finishing a little bit better. If we stick to that process, we’ll put ourselves in a position to win games and that starts Thursday.

“It will be nice to be back at home, hopefully we get a good crowd as we usually do for the Easter game and we can put on a good show for the home fans who we let down in our last home game. Hopefully we can bounce back for them more than anything.”

The last game to look at for Easter Thursday takes place at Warwick Stadium between two more teams with a healthy rivalry, the Senators and Redbacks.

The two teams met in the quarter finals last year with the Senators eliminating the then defending champions. Warwick also scored a 35-point Round 1 win this year at Belmont Oasis.

But it’s a different Redbacks team now with the presence of Marshall Nelson and Kyle Bowen while still awaiting the returns of imports Jourdan DeMuynck and Lee Roberts.

The Redbacks have won two of their past three games with the loss a tight one in Geraldton against the Buccaneers.

The Senators, meanwhile, come into the game on Thursday night with a 3-2 record on the season and are coming off a 31-point win against Mandurah and nine-point victory against Willetton.

The Senators will also be wearing special Aboriginal themed jerseys as part of Indigenous Recognition Round at Warwick Stadium.

Senators coach Mike Ellis knows the Redbacks are going to be a much different opponent than the one they faced in Round 1 though.

“Obviously having Marshall now gives them that legitimate scorer that they didn’t have when we played them to start the season and I’m sure that Kyle Bowen will play as well to give them a presence inside,” Ellis said.

“They’ll be a very different team to what we played the first game and we knew coming in that they were very thin at that point. They just pushed Gero to 10 points after winning a couple of games so they’ll come in feeling good about themselves and they’ll want some retribution for that beating we gave them.

“It’s a quick turnaround as well for both teams, but we just have to be careful. We have to wait and see on Justin because he took a couple of big hits during the game and is suffering a bit of concussion. We’ll see how goes during the week and I think he’ll be OK because it’s not a big concussion, but it was enough for him to sit out the rest of the game.”

MEN’S SBL FIXTURES – WEEK 6
THURSDAY
ID Athletic Perry Lakes Hawks v Willetton Tigers – Bendat Basketball Centre 8.30pm
CMTG East Perth Eagles v Kalamunda Eastern Suns – Herb Graham Recreation Centre 8.30pm
Prestige Honda Melville Cockburn Cougars v Lakeside Lightning – Wally Hagan Stadium 8.30pm
Chambers Franklyn Joondalup City Wolves v Sinclair McDonald’s Rockingham Flames – HBF Arena 8.30pm
Mandurah Magic v Print Sync South West Slammers – Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre 8.30pm
Bethanie Warwick Senators v Texture WA Perth Redbacks – Warwick Stadium 8.30pm