THE women's grand final spots in the SBL for 2013 will be decided this weekend with Wanneroo and Kalamunda needing just one victory to advance while Rockingham and South West need to pull something out of the fire.

The Wanneroo Wolves and Kalamunda Eastern Suns are in the box seats of their semi-final match ups against the Rockingham Flames and Collie Crane Hire South West Slammers, but all four teams remain alive and genuine championship contenders heading into the weekend's action.

The action will begin on Friday night when Game 2 between the Rockingham Flames and Wanneroo Wolves takes place at Mike Barnett Sports Complex.

Then on Saturday night, Game 2 between the Kalamunda Eastern Suns and the South West Slammers will take place at Ray Owen Sports Centre while the deciding Game 3 between the Flames and Wolves will also be played on Saturday if required.

If the Slammers pull off a win over the Suns on Saturday night, the deciding Game 3 in that semi-final series will take place on Sunday at midday also at Ray Owen Sports Centre.

The semi finals got underway last weekend with the Wolves recording an 89-76 win over the Flames at Joondalup Basketball Stadium.

However, the Flames now return home to Mike Barnett Sports Complex having finished the regular season in second position, overcoming the Cockburn Cougars in two games in the quarter finals and looking to at least match last year's grand final appearance.

Last week's clash saw Wanneroo win largely on the back of the efforts of Nikita-Lee Martin and Shani Amos while restricting Rockingham to just 26-of-70 shooting from the field.

Rockingham went an impressive 8-3 at home during the regular season so two more wins this weekend will see them through to the grand final but playing on the road holds no fear for Wanneroo after going 9-2 during the season as well.

Kalamunda is also just one win away from a first-ever women's SBL grand final appearance having downed the defending champion Slammers 69-53 last weekend following a win over the Lakeside Lightning in the quarter-final and after finishing in fifth position in the standings at the end of the regular season.

However, the Slammers won last year's championship and knocked off the top-seeded Willetton Tigers as the eight-placed team in the quarter finals so will be confident of having at least one more shot to fire in 2013.

South West will also be confident of not shooting as poorly as it did last week against Kalamunda in Game 1 where the Slammers shot just 18-of-65 from the field at a paltry 28 per cent.

The series went to Bunbury last weekend and now is at Ray Owen Sports Centre this weekend where the Suns held an impressive 9-2 record during the regular season while the Slammers were just 4-7 away from home.

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Serene Maisey (PandaSnap Photography)