The weekend opened with a difficult trip to the State Basketball Centre to face the in-form Perry Lakes Hawks.

The Suns women controlled the game for extensive periods and lead for most of the forty minutes, but some poor execution late in the game and inaccuracy from the free throw line un-did the great physical effort that was shown, going down 72-74 in a thriller. Pleasingly the Suns were able to match the Lady Hawks, who are a very a good rebounding team, in the rebounds category.

The Suns men came out all guns blazing in the opening quarter and it was them who looked like the second placed team not the Hawks, opening up a 20-9 lead. Despite being within 10 at half time, a massive third quarter by Perry Lakes, which saw them outscore the surprisingly flat Suns 37-12 made the margin insurmountable with the final score being 130-80.

After a tough Friday night, the Suns were back at home at the Furnace on Saturday night, looking to make amends against the Rockingham Flames. Prior to the Women’s game a special presentation was made, by Eastern Suns President Peter Hanson and WSBL Head Coach Craig Mansfield, to Captain Ajay Jones who played her 100^th SBL game, all for the Eastern Suns, becoming the first female to achieve this milestone for the club, at the young age of 20.

The Suns played an excellent first quarter opening up a 27-14 lead against their second placed opponents, only to let Rockingham back in the game in the second, to go in at half time squared at 38-38.

Rockingham, not having played the night before, was far fresher and was able to take advantage of the Suns’ fatiguing energy levels and opened up a 12 point lead at the final change 66-54 and never looked back, running out winners 89-68.

Sass Knox was great for the Suns and pulled in 12 rebounds, to go with the 10 from Friday night, Jennie Rintala had 18 points and milestone woman Ajay Jones had 14 points and 4 rebounds. Next week another tough challenge faces the fourth placed Suns women, their fifth straight fixture against a fellow top 6 team, the first placed Wanneroo Wolves.

The Suns men have been slow starters in games this season but recently they have bucked this trend and this continued Saturday night, pouring in 29 points, including a Ben Smith 4 point play. The Suns led by as many as 8 but let the Flames back in and trailed at the end of the first quarter 29-32.

The second quarter continued to be a high scoring game with both teams shooting above 50% at half time and Rockingham holding a slender 1 point lead 59-58.

After the horror third quarter the night before against the Hawks, a much more determined and focussed Suns outfit emerged from the change rooms and whilst the margin did get to 11 the Suns were able to reel the Flames back in. A late Ben Smith three pointer reduced the margin to 5 at the final break 84-89.

As in the women’s game, the final quarter was all Rockingham who had the fresh legs and were able to break away and win 120-100.

Flames import Steven Bennett, who had been well held all game, was eventually able to break free and recorded a triple double- 14 points, 17 assists and 10 rebounds. Rockingham had a great shooting night, shooting at a very high 56%. For the Suns, Ben Smith had 34 points, 11 of which in the first quarter, and 7/14 from the three point line for the game, Louis Timms had 26 points and 7 rebounds, whilst fellow starter Dayo Oladejo had 8 rebounds.

The Suns take on the Wanneroo Wolves at the Furnace, this coming Sunday 23^rd of June, with the WSBL game starting at 12pm and the MSBL at 2pm.

Article by Steve Trajeski
Photo by Sue Theunissen: Kalamunda Eastern Suns Captain Ajay Jones