THE Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers returned home with their tails in between their legs after a disappointing road trip over the weekend.

The Buccaneers ran into two in-form sides — Perth Redbacks on Saturday night and Cockburn Cougars yesterday — and were forced to again play without import Morgan Sabia.

A terrible weekend from three-point land cost the Buccaneers in both games.

In contrast, Cockburn looked at home from deep, connecting on 52 per cent of their shot attempts in the 107-91 triumph.

Cockburn shot out of the blocks yesterday against the Buccs by piling on 32 points in the opening quarter.

By half time the Cougars almost had the game in the bag with a commanding 58-35 half-time lead.

The Buccs then failed to get closer than 15 points in the second half as the Cougars kept them at bay.

Five Cougars scored double figures, controlling the painted area with 38 points from close range for the game.

Michael Lay and Aaron Ralph top-scored with 28 points each for the game.

Geraldton connected on just 35 per cent of their shot attempts which hurt them while they continued to try to hit three-pointers all day.

Adrian Majstrovich netted 32 points and secured 21 rebounds in Perth’s dominant 96-78 victory on Saturday night.

Perth got an early jump on their opponents with a 34-point opening quarter.

The Redbacks had a comfortable 17-point lead at the first change before the Buccs whittled that down to 11 points at the main change.

Geraldton stayed in touch with the Redbacks through the third term but were blown away in the fourth quarter.

The Buccs were outscored, 14-21in the final term to put the game beyond reach.

Lay top-scored with 22 points while Ralph netted 20 despite hitting just two of his 14 three-point shots.

The Buccs now turn their attention to the Wanneroo Wolves this Saturday night.

Article by Taylor Courtland (Geraldton Guardian)
Photo by South Western Times