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THE Perry Lakes Hawks made it consecutive wins in the Women’s SBL holding off a late charge from the Kalamunda Eastern Suns at Bendat Basketball Centre on Friday night to win by 11 points.

Perry Lakes ended its losing slide on Saturday night against the East Perth Eagles and made it back-to-back wins on Friday on their home floor but they didn’t have it all their own way against the Eastern Suns.

The Lady Hawks got off to a hot start to lead 22-6 by quarter-time but the Suns wouldn’t go away and had levelled scores during the fourth quarter.

Perry Lakes responded, though, to pull away for the 75-64 victory to see them improve to 4-5 on the season while still awaiting the arrival of Nat Burton. Kalamunda is now 3-6 while also awaiting the arrival of their second import Katie Yohn.

DENIELLE LIPSCOMBE | 250 GAMES
ROUND 8 WOMEN’S SBL PREVIEW

Perry Lakes came into the game after ending their three-game losing run on Saturday night against East Perth and then despite some players arriving late due to delays on the freeway, they came out firing in the first quarter against the Eastern Suns.

The Hawks closed the quarter with a 17-2 run to lead 22-6 by quarter-time and they then led 27-8 after five quick combined points from Rebecca Benson and Jamie Cherry.

A triple from Cherry and then jumper from Sam Ashby saw Perry Lakes lead 34-10 soon after and the home team remained in control leading 43-28 at the major break.

Kalamunda wasn’t going away, though, and opened the second half with the first four points and by the time Lauren Jeffers nailed a jump shot against the team she helped lead to the 2017 championship, the margin was just seven.

Jeffers helped trim that deficit to five by three quarter-time and suddenly with 3:30 left to go in the game, the Eastern Suns had drawn level with a Carla Drennan layup.

Nikita Martin responded for Perry Lakes with her own jump shot and she hit another soon after in her best performance of the season having crossed from Joondalup.

Benson then hit a triple and Cherry hit another bucket as Perry Lakes scored the last 11 points after the scores were tied to win by that margin.

Jamie Cherry continued her fine first season in the SBL for the Hawks with the point guard delivering 19 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

Nikita Martin did well for 13 points and five rebounds while Rebecca Benson nailed 4/7 from downtown for 12 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

Kristan Teasdale finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds also for the Hawks.

Coach Deanna Black, just a couple of weeks after getting married to Willetton Tigers head coach and former NBL championship-winning star Steve, was proud of her team fighting off obstacles before and during the game to respond with the last 11 points for an important win.

“Consistency for us to play four quarters of our brand of basketball has been a rollercoaster ride for us this season. We tend to put two quarters and then we’re allowing teams back in or to take the lead on us in those other two quarters,” Black said.

“Moving forward our focus for next week against Rockingham is to put together four quarters because that will put us in a much better position. But credit to our girls in that first quarter when it was 6-22 and they came out firing, but we handled a lot of adversity because a lot of our girls were late with the freeway debacle.

“Our routine was thrown a little bit but the girls responded really well to that to show resilience and come out to play how they did. Credit to the Suns, they pressed up the floor and got after us, and got themselves back into the game.

“That was credit to them, but I was really proud of how we could weather the pressure and pull it back, and take control again to get the win. For us it’s a really good win. Our focus from here is to get those four quarters going and if we can get that done, we’ll be a really tough team come the back end of the season.”

Jennie Rintala battled hard for the Eastern Suns and stayed out of foul trouble for 17 points, 13 rebounds and two steals, including going a perfect 8/8 from the foul line.

Carla Drennan produced likely the best of her 57-game SBL career with 14 points, six rebounds and three steals as well while Jewel Williams finished with 12 points and four steals, Lauren Jeffers nine points, six assists, five boards and three steals, and Rebecca Motroni eight points, four rebounds and three steals.

The Eastern Suns now back up at home to the Lakeside Lightning on Saturday night.

WOMEN’S SBL FIXTURES – WEEK 8

FRIDAY
Scarboro Toyota Perry Lakes Hawks 75 defeated Kalamunda Eastern Suns 64
Schweigen East Perth Eagles 56 lost to Texture WA Perth Redbacks 90
Class 1 Orthodontics Rockingham Flames 79 defeated Bethanie Warwick Senators 72

SATURDAY
Texture WA Perth Redbacks v Print Sync South West Slammers – Belmont Oasis 4.00pm
Willetton Tigers v Class 1 Orthodontics Rockingham Flames – Willetton Basketball Stadium 5.00pm
Bethanie Warwick Senators v Chambers Franklyn Joondalup City Wolves – Warwick Stadium 6.00pm
Kalamunda Eastern Suns v Lakeside Lightning – Ray Owen Sports Centre 6.30pm