Hot Suns hunt for top 4 but cautious of Senators
THE Kalamunda Eastern Suns are in scintillating form in the women's SBL trying to track down a top four finish come playoff time but coach Craig Mansfield is not looking any further ahead than the Stirling Senators this Sunday.
The Kalamunda Eastern Suns are in hot form having won their last six matches and they now finish the regular season at home to the Senators, and away to the Joondalup Wolves and Perry Lakes Hawks.
The Eastern Suns recorded their sixth straight victory last weekend over the winless Perth Redbacks and even though it was hard work early, Mansfield was overall pretty happy with his team's showing to keep their winning streak going.
"We started slowly and the Redbacks jumped out of the blocks so we found ourselves behind early," Mansfield said.
"The remainder of the game our effort and work rate was excellent and this was shown in the rebounding numbers, we didn’t always play intelligently and rushed offensively at times but we were happy to get a comfortable win.
"I was impressed with the improvement Redbacks showed against us even in a few short weeks and they shot the ball especially well from outside."
Kalamunda now has to wait until Sunday this weekend to play when the Eastern Suns host the Stirling Senators with Mansfield and his team looking to win a seventh straight match and bounce back from a defeat earlier in the season to Stirling.
The Suns are currently fifth in the standings coming into Week 17 of the competition while the Senators are fourth with Stirling to play the Cockburn Cougars on Saturday night before then taking on the Eastern Suns.
"We left Warwick earlier in the season smarting over a disappointing loss and one of our worst performances in 2014. We are all particularly keen to play our brand of basketball and make amends for that this weekend," Mansfield said.
"It will be an entertaining contest as both teams match up well, play pressure defence, run and shoot the three.
"It is a crucial game in determining final ladder finishing positions between third and sixth so we will be focused and keen to show how much we have improved over the course of the season so far."
Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin
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