THE Wanneroo Wolves have a chance at a rare SBL championship double tonight when their men take on the Lakeside Lightning at the WA Basketball Centre with star Seb Salinas happy to claim the underdogs tag.

The Wolves' women's team started the Grand Final weekend perfectly for Wanneroo winning the championship with a 72-47 victory over the Kalamunda Eastern Suns on Friday night giving the men's side the chance to pull off the double.

The Wanneroo men have won their only two Grand Final appearances as well, most recently in 2011, and won all four of their finals matches so far but their opponents the Lakeside Lightning have been the dominant team in the competition in 2013 finishing the regular season five games clear.

However, the Wolves have come from finishing sixth to beat the Geraldton Buccaneers and Perry Lakes Hawks to advance to the Grand Final with a new-look team in 2013.

Craig Friday is on board as coach with Trian Iliadis and Rob Huntington coming on board to be star performers to help lead their way to the Grand Final with the retiring Damian Matacz still their go-to man inside.

Salinas is now a veteran of the Wanneroo line-up and continues to be a strong contributor, but going into the Grand Final against the Lightning he is happy for Lakeside to go in as favourites.

"I think we have been underdogs for most of the season so it's good for us to go into the grand final as underdogs again," Salinas said.

"The pressure is all on them and we weren’t expected to do much in the finals after finishing sixth, but we've won both series' in, but we are happy for them to go into the grand final with the favourites tag."

Wanneroo did take some time to warm into the 2013 season with two new starters and a new coach, but things have started to click in the second part of the campaign and certainly during the playoffs to see them into the Grand Final.

"The first half of the year after bringing in two new starters under a new coach, we knew it was going to take a while and we didn’t have our full roster for the first half of the year either," he said.

"In the second half of the year, everyone got a bit more continuity with each other and we were able to get the same team out on the court, and it makes a massive difference when we all play together.

"We felt it was slowly building and towards the end of the season we went on a bit of a winning streak and we've hit form at the right time, which is good for us."

While Salinas didn’t have a great personal night back in the Grand Final of 2011, he is still a championship winner and desperately hopes to now become a two-time winner.

"It wasn’t the greatest night for myself personally, but we came away in the end with the championship at the end of the night so that's all that matters," Salinas said.

While Lakeside won't be easy opponents and have beaten Wanneroo twice during the regular season, the Wolves go in confident and remarkably have also never lost at the WA Basketball Centre.

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Clare Chappell