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IT shapes as a fascinating Round 11 in the Women’s SBL beginning with four teams in action on Friday night with hopes of being there when the whips are cracking with the Perth Redbacks playing the Joondalup Wolves, and the Warwick Senators hosting the Lakeside Lightning.

Round 11 in the Women’s SBL begins on Friday night with two tantalising match ups that sees the Perth Redbacks play the Joondalup Wolves at Belmont Oasis.

Then at Warwick Stadium, the Warwick Senators play the Lakeside Lightning in a game where the two teams not only jostle over positions near the top of the standings but Lakeside championship winner Sam Roscoe will play against her former team for the first time and the Lightning’s Tiahrn Flynn will also celebrate her 200th SBL appearance.

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Round 11 in the Women’s SBL continues on Saturday starting at Willetton Basketball Stadium with the Willetton Tigers playing the Warwick Senators.

The other three Saturday night fixtures all take place starting from 6pm with the Perry Lakes Hawks playing the Cockburn Cougars, the Rockingham Flames facing the East Perth Eagles, and the South West Slammers taking on the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

Round 11 begins on Friday night at Belmont Oasis with plenty of reasons to be intrigued by the contest between the Redbacks and Lady Wolfpack.

Wolves coach Charles Nix was in charge of the Redbacks last season, taking them to the semi finals and a second-place finish at the end of the regular season. He now leads the Lady Wolfpack back to Belmont for the first time this Friday night with fellow former Redbacks Kayla Steindl and Mikayla Pirini with him.

The Wolves did lose last Friday night to Willetton but prior to that had won seven straight heading into Friday’s clash with the Redbacks.

Perth started the season slowly under new coach Craig Allen, but have now won four of the last five games with the addition of star power in the form of Lauren Mansfield, Morgan Pullins and Taylor Roberts.

That all sets the tone for a tremendous contest with the Redbacks trying to keep building momentum to break into the top eight and the Wolves out to maintain their top two position.

The other Friday night contest should also be a beauty between the fourth placed Senators and defending champion, league-leading Lightning at Warwick Stadium.

Dion Dagostino has done an impressive job getting his new-look Senators group to click in the first half of the season with them coming into Friday night with a 7-3 record having won their last two matches.

They now have welcomed Sam Roscoe into the roster after she played in the championship last year with Lakeside with Stacey Barr, Tayla Hepburn, Bianca Villegas and Samaria Howard settling in nicely with guard Maddison Hooper back now as well.

Lakeside comes into Friday night’s clash after a weekend off following a five-game winning streak that continued even without coach Craig Mansfield and captain Courtney Byrnes who were getting married while their team beat East Perth by 50 points.

The Lightning should just about be at full strength come Friday night too with Ali Schwagmeyer’s replacement import a chance to debut adding to further reasons the game looms as one not to miss.

Saturday evening in the Women’s SBL begins with the 5pm tipoff game between the Tigers and Senators at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

Willetton’s Round 10 couldn’t have been more contrasting with a win over Joondalup on Friday and then a loss to East Perth on Saturday. That leaves the Tigers entering Round 11 in third position on the table with a 10-4 record.

Saturday night should provide some answers over to the Tigers’ championship credentials when they host a Senators team coming off hosting Lakeside on Friday night.

Perry Lakes is back on action on Saturday night as well hosting Cockburn at Bendat Basketball Centre.

The Lady Hawks had last weekend off on the back of a good run of winning three consecutive matches against East Perth, Kalamunda and Rockingham to improve to a 5-5 record on the season.

They host a Cougars team on Saturday night desperate to return to the winner’s list having now lost eight straight matches since winning their opening two of the season.

For the first time in two years East Perth heads into a game coming off a victory when the Eagles travel to Rockingham to take on the Flames on Saturday night.

Having not won in two years and having lost 43 straight matches including an average losing margin of well over 40 points this season, the Eagles pulled off the shock of 2019 last Saturday night beating a Willetton team on a seven-game winning streak.

East Perth now takes on a Rockingham team desperate to bounce back themselves following three successive losses despite the addition last week against the South West Slammers of WNBL and Australian Opals star Darcee Garbin to the frontcourt including Maddie Allen and Christina Boag.

The last game of the round in the Women’s SBL takes place at Eaton Recreation Centre between a Slammers team just inside the top eight and an Eastern Suns team just outside.

The Slammers scored a heart stopping win over the Flames last Friday night with Makailah Dyer and Brittni Montgomery impressive with support from Kate Fielding, Courtney Bayliss and Bianca Donovan.

They will look to make it consecutive wins up against an Eastern Suns team who suffered their own loss to the Redbacks last week despite the addition of new import Katie Yohn and return from a knee reconstruction of Alecia Knowles.

WOMEN’S SBL FIXTURES – WEEK 11
FRIDAY
Texture WA Perth Redbacks v Chambers Franklyn Joondalup City Wolves – Belmont Oasis 6.30pm
Bethanie Warwick Senators v Lakeside Lightning – Warwick Stadium 6.30pm

SATURDAY
Willetton Tigers v Bethanie Warwick Senators – Willetton Basketball Stadium 5.00pm
ID Athletic Perry Lakes Hawks v Prestige Honda Melville Cockburn Cougars – Bendat Basketball Centre 6.00pm
Class 1 Orthodontics Rockingham Flames v Schweigen East Perth Eagles – Mike Barnett Sports Complex 6.00pm
Print Sync South West Slammers v Kalamunda Eastern Suns – Eaton Recreation Centre 6.00pm