WEEK 3 of the 2016 SBL season concluded on Sunday afternoon at Ray Owen Sports Centre with two high-scoring contests that were won by the Rockingham Flames over the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

The day's action to conclude the round started with the women's contest resulting in the defending champion Rockingham Flames beating the Kalamunda Eastern Suns 102-93.

Then in the men's contest, it was another high-scoring shootout with the Flames prevailing over the Eastern Suns 129-117 even without Cooper and Taylor Land.

With the women's contest, the Flames lost their opening game of the season as they hunt a Championship three-peat in 2016 but they have hit back hard since with wins over Joondalup Wolves, East Perth Eagles, Cockburn Cougars and now the Eastern Suns.

Backing up from their 107-53 win over the Cougars on Saturday night, Rockingham showed no signs of fatigue against Kalamunda with a 37-point opening quarter.

The Suns didn’t give up and kept chipping away at that deficit in search of their second win within 24 hours as well, but they could only get within nine points by the final buzzer.

Sami Whitcomb had a good game still for the Flames with 15 points, nine rebounds, four assists and four steals but she took a little more of a back seat to her teammates taking just eight shots of which she made five.

Jacinta Bourne stepped up to be the leading scorer for Rockingham with 22 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and three assists while hitting 4-of-9 from three-point range.

Darcee Garbin moved into the starting line-up after a big game on Saturday night to finish with 20 points and five boards.

Talisia Bourne also had 12 points and four rebounds for Rockingham, Ashlee Sidebottom 11 points and four boards, and Tarsha Fletcher 10 points and four assists.

Stacy Barr backed up her impressive performance for the Eastern Suns in the win over the Eagles on Saturday night with 32 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals against the Flames on Sunday.

Sarah-Jane MacMahon provided strong support with 15 points, 10 rebounds and four assists with Natalia Soli'ai contributing 14 points and nine boards, Jorjah Smith 11 points and six assists, and Jaimee Rich 10 points.

The Eastern Suns once again had no trouble scoring in the men's contest to end the weekend's action, but once more they couldn’t limit the opposition and the Flames came away with the 12-point victory.

The Suns remain the only winless team in the men's SBL in 2016 having lost their first five games but scoring hasn’t been a problem hitting 112, 109, 117, 102 and 117 in the five games. It hasn’t been enough on any occasion to get the points though.

On Sunday afternoon, the Flames only gradually pulled away from the Eastern Suns in the second half but the eventual 12-point win saw them bounce back from a loss at home to the Cougars on Saturday and improve to a 3-2 record.

Rockingham did well shooting from the floor going 43-of-84 at 51 per cent and got to the line for 50 free-throws, of which they made 33. Kalamunda once again got off plenty of shots but went just 41-of-105 at 39 per cent.

Chudier Pal had the game of his SBL career to date for the Flames with a massive 36 points, 22 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. He nailed 15-of-16 of his field goal attempts but made just 6-of-15 free-throws.

Ryan Godfrey also had a significant afternoon for Rockingham with 31 points and five assists while Jarryd Griffin added 21 points, 12 rebounds and six assists.

Matthew Honey added 14 points off the bench and Nebojsha Franich moved into the starting line-up to contribute 10 points. Luke Roberts finished with eight points and 11 assists.

Italian import Jacopo Marsili top-scored for the Eastern Suns with 24 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals with Brandon McGill contributing 13 points and nine assists, Geordie Murray 12 points, Tim Squire 11, Kerrod Horn 11 (eight boards) and Ryan Blanchett 11 (five rebounds).

SUNDAY WOMEN'S SBL MATCHES
Kalamunda Eastern Suns 93 lost to Rockingham Flames 102

SUNDAY MEN'S SBL MATCHES
Kalamunda Eastern Suns 117 lost to Rockingham Flames 129

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by HoopShots