Wanneroo bounce back with victory over East Perth
The Wanneroo Wolves have bounced back from a one-point Saturday night loss to record a 92-87 win over Australian Central East Perth Eagles on Sunday.
Wildcats development player Greg Hire led the Wolves in every category with 31 points, 18 rebounds and 5 assists while Damian Matacz had 21 points.
Hire’s Wildcats teammate Jarrod Balcombe was East Perth’s best with 22 points.
Wanneroo led for all but the first minute of the match and stretched their lead to as much as 13 points late in the third period before the Eagles fought back and got as close as four points in final stages, but the hosts held on.
Wolves head coach Ben Ettridge said he knew the Eagles would come back but was impressed with his side’s performance on the back of Saturday night’s tough match against the Cockburn Cougars.
“I’m proud of the boys and the way they’ve played in two tough games in a row,” he said.
“We had to run all twelve guys last night and again tonight, the younger guys like the Lewis Longthorn’s and the Rhys Langford’s are stepping up. It takes twelve guys all contributing to win a championship so that’s what we’re trying to get.
“We did the work early on in that fourth quarter, we got their big guys in foul trouble and stuck to it.
“We had our best free throw shooters on at the end and they kept fouling a guy that’s shooting 84 per cent from the floor so I’ve never seen that tactic work, if teams want to employ that, good luck to them.”
Earlier, Glasscraft Wanneroo Wolves also bounced back from a heartbreaking loss to Cockburn the night before with a 68-56 victory over the Eagles.
Rebecca Mercer had 19 points, Megan D’arcy (16) for Wanneroo while Nicole Jorre St Jorre was the Eagles’ best with 16 of her own.
That result saw the Wolves finish the round in third spot at 3-1 ahead of the bye next week, while East Perth was in eighth spot with one win from its two games.
Wanneroo’s men will now travel to Geraldton to face the Buccaneers, while East Perth take on Stirling at home.
Article by Ben Cameron at Joondalup Basketball Stadium
Photo by Wayne Wright (Wayne Wright Photography)
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