Lightning/Wolves men need one (SF Week 2 Preview)

LAKESIDE and Wanneroo require just one victory this weekend to advance to the men's SBL grand final for 2013 but East Perth and Perry Lakes still have a chance of getting through to the championship decider.

The Lakeside Lightning and Australian Belt Scrapers Wanneroo Wolves both hold one-nil semi-final leads in the best-of-three series' against the People's Choice Eagles and Perry Lakes Hawks respectively with Game 2's and possibly Game 3's to be held this weekend.

Both Game 2's will take place on Friday night with the Lakeside Lightning playing the East Perth Eagles at Lakeside Recreation Centre while the Perry Lakes Hawks host the Wanneroo Wolves at the WA Basketball Centre.

If East Perth or Perry Lakes, or both, win on Friday night then the deciding Game 3's in both of the two semi-final series' will be played on Saturday night at the same venues that hosts the Friday action.

The Lakeside Lightning were the dominant team throughout the SBL regular season finishing on top of the standings five games clear before comfortably beating the BOQ Perth Redbacks in two quarter-final matches.

The Lightning then beat the Eagles last weekend 98-88 in Game 1 of the semi finals but it only came on the back of a massive 32-20 final period with East Perth leading at quarter-time at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.

The series now heads to Lakeside Recreation Centre, though, where the Lightning went an imposing 13-0 during the regular season while the Eagles struggled on the road with just 6-7.

However, even without Jarrod Balcombe the Eagles possess a talented line-up with the likes of Tom Jervis, Drew Williamson, Joe-Alan Tupaea and Michael Jones, and will be confident of taking it right up to Ben Beran, Jarrad Prue, Justin Cecil, Jesse Dixon, Darrel Morgan and the rest of the Lakeside squad.

Even though the Wanneroo Wolves finished the regular season in sixth position on the standings, they came into the finals with plenty of momentum and carried that through in the quarter finals with an upset win over the Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers.

The Wolves then backed that up with a Game 1 semi-final win over the Hawks last weekend by 16 points at Joondalup Basketball Stadium.

However, the Hawks had a terrific regular season ending up in second position in the standings before having to bounce back from losing Game 1 against the Mandurah Magic in the quarter finals to win in three games.

The Hawks now need to win both games this weekend at the WA Basketball Centre to make it through to the grand final or else it will be Wanneroo advancing.

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Clare Chappell




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