The Geraldton Buccaneers extended its winning streak to three games with a comfortable 101-68 victory over Kalamunda Eastern Suns on Saturday night.

A triple-double from Mark Heron helped the Buccs wake from a first half slumber at Activewest Stadium.

Kalamunda connected on just seven of their 43 field goal attempts in the second half as the home team outscored them 45-21 after half time.

Buccs coach Ray Evans said his side started the game sloppy.

“The Suns really took it up to us, especially the way they came out and shot the ball well,” he said.

“They are a young team and they came out with that full court pressure and it took our guys a while to adjust to that.

“The second half was a different story, we really cranked up our defence and ball movement.

“The guys knew we were playing a team that hadn’t won but once the guys realised they weren’t going to go away unless we picked it up that’s what turned it around.”

Kalamunda’s full court pressure put the Buccs on the back foot and caused seven first quarter turnovers.

It did not take long for Geraldton to erase the two-point quarter-time deficit.

Thirty three second-quarter points put the Buccs on top by nine at the main change.

A different Buccaneers line-up emerged from the changerooms in the third term.

It took Kalamunda more than six minutes to register a point in the quarter as the young line up began to run out of legs.

By the time they got on the score board for the quarter the Buccs had an unassailable lead.

That gave Evans the opportunity to hand youngsters Dylan “the jet” Myers and Jesse Lee a SBL debut.

Myers scored the final two points of the game to the great satisfaction of the home fans.

Article by Taylor Courtland (Geraldton Guardian)
Photo by Helen Theoharakis (Hoop Shots)