Where and When: WA Basketball Stadium, Saturday August 27, 7.30pm

Tickets: www.ticketmaster.com.au or 1300 136 122

Form: Wanneroo - WLWLLWLWWW Perry Lakes - LWLWWWWWLW

Road to the Grand Final: Wanneroo - Beat Willetton 2-1 in QF, beat Cockburn 2-0 in SF. Perry Lakes - Beat Perth 2-0 in QF, beat Lakeside 2-1 in SF.

Meetings This Season:

Round One: Wanneroo 94 (Hire 25 points, Schmechtig 18, Matacz 17) Perry Lakes 79 (Lee 29, Dixon 22, Burns 10)

Round Eight: Perry Lakes 107 (Lee 33 points, Tupaea 23, Purser 16) Wanneroo 102 (Vaudreuil 25, Hire 22, Salinas 21)

Summary:

Wanneroo Wolves will be trying to end an 18-year championship drought when they face Total Connections Perry Lakes Hawks in Saturday's men's State Basketball League Grand Final.

The Wolves haven't even made the Grand Final since they won their only title in 1993, but will end their dry spell with victory at the WA Basketball Centre.

Wanneroo's lack of recent success is in stark contrast to Perry Lakes, which has won five championships and made seven of the past 11 Grand Finals.

Hawks coach Dion Dagostino said that experience could give his side an advantage.

"Most of our guys played when we made it to the Grand Final two years ago. Maybe that will give us an edge, but I know it's going to be an outstanding game," he said.

Fourth seed Perry Lakes made it to the title decider after sweeping Stirling in their best-of-three quarter-final match-up and upsetting minor premiers Lakeside with a 2-1 series win.

It's that defeat of the Lightning, who had only lost two games this season before that series, which Wolves coach Ben Ettridge believes makes the Hawks the favourites to win the championship.

"It's great for the club to finally make the Grand Final and we're very proud of the players ... It's a really big task that awaits us though," he said.

But Ettridge hopes the experience of Wildcats co-captain Brad Robbins, fellow NBL player Greg Hire and SBL veteran Tony Pearman can make up for the Wolves' lack of finals history.

New Wildcats recruit Hire has been in tremendous form for the Wolves, which was capped off by his 34 points and 25 rebounds in Wanneroo's semi-final series-clinching win against Cockburn last weekend.

Robbins has also stepped up in the finals, where he is averaging 19.2 points per game, but his biggest test is likely to come on the defensive end against Hawks star Anthony Lee.

The import forward, who is second in the competition in scoring with 28.4 points per game and fifth in rebounding with an average of 14.8, has been integral to Perry Lakes' success all season.

The Grand Final tips off at 7.30pm, with tickets still available through Ticketmaster.

Word From The Teams:

Wanneroo coach Ben Ettridge on how to stop Hawks star Anthony Lee: "We haven't targeted anyone to guard him. We'll throw a lot of different looks at him. We've got guys on the perimeter that can guard him, like Matt Schmechtig, Seb Salinas and Brad Robbins. We'll throw those looks on him and we'll give Greg Hire a chance on him too."

Perry Lakes import Anthony Lee on the occasion of the Grand Final (from Sports Breakfast on SportFM 91.3): "This is going to be like any other game. We're going to come into this game playing defence and playing our normal game. We play with pressure all this year, so we can deal with it."

Burning Questions:

Can the Hawks stop Wanneroo's dominance of the boards? The Wolves killed the rebound battle in both games against Cockburn, out-rebounding the Cougars 51-34 in game one and 61-36 in game two. Crucial to that has been Greg Hire, who has at least 11 rebounds in every game this year and has more than 20 seven times, but big men John Vaudreuil and Damian Matacz also provide a strong presence and Brad Robbins is a great rebounder for a guard. When the Hawks were close to Lakeside in their rebounding in the semi-finals, they won both games, but they lost game two when they were out-rebounded 57-42. Anthony Lee, Andy Burns and Ben Purser will all have to work extra hard to prevent the Wolves from dominating.

Can Perry Lakes be beaten in a close game? When the margin is seven points or less, the Hawks remarkably have a 12-2 win-loss record this season. They've had an uncanny knack for winning the close games all season, which could be a crucial factor in a Grand Final, which always tend to be tight. Wanneroo didn't play anywhere near as many close games this season, but wasn't as convincing when it did. Its record when the margin was seven or less was just 4-4.

Expert Tips:

Dave Herbert (West Coast Waves coach) - Wanneroo

Shawn Dennis (Perth Wildcats assistant coach) - Wanneroo

Rob Beveridge (Perth Wildcats coach) - Wanneroo

Jacob Kagi (SBL.asn.au writer) - Perry Lakes

Scott Hood (SBLtv commentator) - Wanneroo

Steve Mills (6PR Broadcaster and SBLtv commentator) - Wanneroo

Nick Marvin (Perth Wildcats managing director) - Wanneroo

Christian Rice (Basketball WA competitions manager) - Wanneroo

Coverage: SBL.asn.au is the place to be for the best coverage before, during and after the game. We'll have all the news in the lead-up and live stats during the match. For everyone who wants regular updates of the game, 'like' SBL on Facebook and follow WA_SBL on Twitter, where we'll have the latest scores and news. There'll also be match reports and reaction from both teams straight after the match on SBL.asn.au. And for everyone who can't make it to the match, remember you can watch the game on the free SBLtv broadcast from 7.20pm at http://www.sbltv.com/.

Article by Jacob Kagi
Photo by Helen Theoharakis (Hoop Shots)

Follow the SBL on Facebook