Redbacks put the bite on Suns
The Perth Redbacks put the bite on the Kalamunda Eastern Suns taking out both matches in their Saturday night encounters at Belmont Oasis Recreation Centre.
Craig Mansfield’s Suns have now dropped their last five matches. Of greater concern is that they are dropping further away from the home court advantage placing for the play-offs. The Suns had 5 more shots than the Redbacks but were smashed in the rebound count 33-51, with Redbacks centre Marita Payne tallying 19 boards, to go with her 20 points.
With captain Ajay Jones, and Melissa Moyle also, missing the game, it was always going to be difficult for the Suns against a resurgent opponent knocking on the play-offs door. The Suns only lead the game for 17 seconds, after Chelsea Armstrong opened the game’s scoring. Despite narrowing the margin to just 1 point with a minute to play, some poor execution and rebounding hurt the Suns, allowing the Redbacks to seal the win 62-57. Emma Berryman had 16 points to lead the Suns whilst import Jennie Rintala notched up 14 and Jessie Edwards had 9 points and 8 boards.
In a highly physical encounter, and captain Joel Questel’s 150th SBL game, all for the Kalamunda Eastern Suns, the Suns men started in good form. The Suns held their own against the top 4 bound Redbacks, trailing by only 1 at quarter time, 22-23.
The Redbacks had done their homework and were able to restrict Ben Smith’s offensive output in the game, though they couldn’t stop Luke Nevill who was able to wreak havoc at both ends of the floor, with some big dunks and some even bigger blocks. Despite Nevill’s best efforts, the second quarter belonged to Perth and they had opened up a 13 point buffer, leading 55-42. The Redbacks never looked back, and, apart from a late 7-2 Suns run in the third, closed out an important 113-90 win.
Nevill finished the game with 32 points, 13 rebounds and an impressive 4 blocks, he was assisted by Louis Timms who had 14 points, 5 rebounds and 2 big blocks and Kerrod Horn finished with 13 points.
Next up for the Suns is a Friday road trip to Lakeside, to face the Lightning. The WSBL game will be a direct battle for a top 4 place whilst the MSBL will be a massive test for Coach Kuhn’s developing Suns, facing the top placed Lightning. WSBL at 6:30pm and MSBL at 8:30pm.
Article by Steve Trajeski
Photo by Mick Cronin
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