Mandurah Magic have consolidated their top four position with a hard fought 113-108 overtime victory over John Hughes Stirling Senators on Friday night.

The victory ensures the Magic remain in fourth position on the ladder heading towards the finals.

The Senators jumped out to an early four point lead at quarter time on the back of Adhar Mayen, whose low post and mid range game proved trouble for the Magic big men.

However the Magic were soon able to reel the Senators in and arrested control as Taylor Mullenax began to dominate the painted area. Aaron Trahair also proved a handful as he began to catch fire from beyond the three point line.

The Magic went in to half time with a slender one point advantage and looked to carry their second quarter momentum into the third. Led by Taylor Land and Andrew Bowman at the point, the Magic appeared to run Stirling off the floor as they created numerous opportunities for their big men.

Rob Huntington played an integral part in Stirling’s fourth quarter comeback as he nullified Mandurah’s defensive efforts with some big buckets down the stretch. Aaron Coddington and Will Foster also made some clutch buckets to bring the Senators back to tie the game with nine seconds remaining.

The final possession saw a fade away jump shot from Tom Remmerswaal rattle in and out, and the resulting tip in attempts from Land and Mullenax also rim out, thus sending the game into overtime.

Unfortunately for Stirling they couldn’t match the leg speed of the Magic and couldn’t account for the hot shooting of Trahair as he sealed the victory with some big three point shots late in overtime.

“Stirling scouted us really well and pushed us out of our offense, but we stuck to our game plan and were unlucky not to hit those couple of shots towards the end that would have won it for us,” Magic guard Andrew Bowman said post game.

“Next week is going to be tough, we owe Perry Lakes because we lost that game, and our game against Lakeside is going to be a good measure of where we are actually at. When we play the better teams we play better basketball.”

Mullenax led all scorers with 30 points and 17 rebounds. Trahair finished with 28 points while Tom Remmerswaal and Taylor Land each had double doubles. For Stirling, Rob Huntington was their top man with 25 points and ten rebounds, while Mayen contributed 22 points.

Earlier in the WSBL, the Mandurah Magic came back from a 13 point deficit to defeat Western Stainless Solutions Stirling Senators 59-55.

In a back and forth contest, it proved to be Mandurah’s superior shooting percentage that saw them record just their second win of the season. The Magic shot 41% from the field in comparison to Stirling’s 24%, and 11% from the three point line.

However one stat line that did not read pretty for the Magic was their 37 turnovers in comparison to the Senators’ tally of ten.

Shelley Boston led the way for the Magic with 13 points and 22 rebounds as she helped her team to a 55-32 rebounding advantage. Rachel Halleen was also solid with 13 point and nine rebounds.

For the Senators, Lauren Jeffers had a great first half with 16 points but could only manage 18 for the game. She was well aided by Samantha Roscoe who had 10 points.

Next week sees the Magic host Perry Lakes on Friday night and then travel to Lakeside to face the Lightning on Saturday, whilst the Senators head to Joondalup for a tough matchup against the Wanneroo Wolves.

Article by Nathan Winch
Photo by Mick Cronin