PERRY Lakes and Rockingham continued their winning runs in the Women's SBL on Saturday night while the South West Slammers, Cockburn Cougars and Stirling Senators made it two wins in 24 hours in the Men's competition.

There were two Women's matches on Saturday night with the Perry Lakes Hawks remaining unbeaten defeating the Stirling Senators 83-64 while the Rockingham Flames won a fifth straight match beating the Lakeside Lightning 77-61.

And in the Men's matches, the South West Slammers beat the Goldfields Giants 101-97, the Cockburn Cougars downed the Geraldton Buccaneers 104-89, the Stirling Senators overcame the Perry Lakes Hawks 100-94 in overtime and the Rockingham Flames defeated the Lakeside Lightning 113-85.

The Lady Hawks improved to a 4-0 record this season backing up their win on Friday over the East Perth Eagles beating the Senators by 19 points at Bendat Basketball Centre on Saturday.

Deanna Smith had an outstanding night for the Hawks with 31 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.

Emily Burton contributed 12 points and six rebounds for Perry Lakes, Antonia Edmondson 11 points, five boards, five assists and three steals, and Lauren Jeffers nine points, eight assists, three stelas and two boards.

Amber Land did her best for the Senators with 10 points and 13 rebounds with Chelsea Armstrong finishing with 10 points, Taylor Bestry nine and Tegan Walker nine.

The Flames also improved to 5-1 having now won their last five matches following an opening round loss to the Willetton Tigers when they were minus Sami Whitcomb and Darcee Garbin. The defending champions withstood the Lightning on Saturday winning by 16 points.

The Lightning started encouragingly to only trail by a point at the half but the Flames put their foot down in the second half starting with 27 points to 13 in the third period to set up the win.

Fresh off re-signing with the Townsville Fire in the WNBL for two more seasons, Darcee Garbin finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds for the Flames in the absence of Whitcomb.

Jacinta Bourne had another good night for Rockingham with 17 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots.

Tarsha Fletcher also added 10 points and six rebounds, and Ella Kennedy nine points and six boards.

Alison Schwagmeyer finished with 16 points, six rebounds and four assists for the Lightning with Ashleigh Grant adding 12 points and eight boards, and Devanny King 10 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Then in the Men's action, the Slammers continued their good form now that they are settling into the new season backing up Friday's win over Mandurah beating the Giants at Eaton Recreation by four points.

The Giants started well on the road leading by four points at half-time but the Slammers turned it around in the third quarter with 38 points to 25 to set up the eventual four-point victory.

Tre Nichols starred for the Slammers with 37 points and eight rebounds while nailing 13-of-26 from the field, 6-of-12 from three-point range and 5-of-6 at the stripe.

Royal Crouch contributed 17 points, nine rebounds and four assists for South West, Trent Worthington 13 points and 20 boards, and Teny Puot 11 points.

Jacob Holmen had another standout night for the Giants with 32 points and 18 rebounds with Kenny Manigault contributing 20 points, 12 boards, six assists and three steals.

Ezra Nikora added 10 points for Goldfields and Daniel Goodluck 10 points and six rebounds.

The Cougars remained on top of the standings improving to a 5-1 record beating the Buccaneers at home by 15 points. Cockburn had also beaten the Willetton Tigers on Friday.

The Cougars dominated the second half outscoring the Buccs 54-32 to prevail by 15 points.

Marcus Goode had his best night of an already impressive start to his SBL career with 31 points, 18 rebounds and eight blocked shots for the Cougars. He shot 13-of-22 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.

Rhett Della contributed 22 points, seven rebounds and three assists for Cockburn while Najee Lane added 15 points, five assists and five steals, and Gavin Field 12 points, three blocks, two rebounds and two assists.

Matthew Adekponya had another standout performance for the Buccaneers with 31 points and seven rebounds shooting 11-of-21 from the field, and 8-of-10 from the charity stripe.

Maurice Barrow added 21 points for the Buccs but did have eight turnovers while Mat Wundenberg returned with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Aaron Ralph had a double-double off the bench too with 10 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots.

The Senators also made it two wins in as many days. After beating the Eastern Suns in a high-scoring shootout on Friday, they prevailed over the Hawks at Bendat Basketball Centre on Saturday by six points in overtime.

Little separated the two teams all night and they couldn’t be split after four quarters, but the Senators had a little too much in overtime to score 11 points to five. It was an encouraging performance still by the Hawks without the injured Bryton Hobbs.

Jayden Coburn ended up top-scoring for the Senators with 20 points, five rebounds and three steals.

Kyle Lindbergh added 18 points, eight rebounds and three assists for Stirling, Austin Bruton 17 points and six boards, AJ Majstrovich 15 points and eight rebounds, Cody Ellis 11 points and four boards, and Ashley Litterick nine points and six rebounds.

Brian Carlwell stepped up to top-score from the Hawks with a huge double-double made up of 20 points, 21 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Ben Dixon added 17 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals while Ben Purser contributed 14 points, eight boards and four assists, and Ryan Smith 14 points and six rebounds.

The final game of the night saw the Flames too good for the Lightning winning by 28 points at Mike Barnett Sports Complex.

Rockingham put the game out of reach of Lakeside with a 38-point second quarter and the Flames stretched their lead throughout the second half to win by 28.

Cooper Land returned for Rockingham and delivered 30 points, 14 rebounds and four assists while Chudier Pal continued his exciting form with 27 points, 16 boards and six blocked shots.

Ryan Godfrey added 16 points, four rebounds and four assists for the Flames while Matthew Honey contributed 12 points, eight boards and four assists.

Taylor Land also played his first game of the year after having his visa cleared. He had eight points, seven assists and three rebounds.

Seva Chan had a good game for the Lightning with 20 points and four assists while shooting 9-of-12 from the field.

TJ Hallice added 20 points and eight rebounds for Lakeside, and Daniel Alexander 16 points and five boards.

SATURDAY WOMEN'S SBL MATCHES
Perry Lakes Hawks 83 defeated Stirling Senators 64
Rockingham Flames 77 defeated Lakeside Lightning 61

SATURDAY MEN'S SBL MATCHES
South West Slammers 101 defeated Goldfields Giants 97
Cockburn Cougars 104 defeated Geraldton Buccaneers 89
Perry Lakes Hawks 94 lost to Stirling Senators 100
Rockingham Flames 113 defeated Lakeside Lightning 85

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Grant Lauterbach