The Joondalup Wolves, Willetton Tigers, Lakeside Lightning and Cockburn Cougars all delivered impressive performances for emphatic victories in the Women’s Division of NBL1 West on Saturday night.
Round 5 in the NBL1 season got underway with two matches in the Women’s Division on Friday night with the Perth Redbacks beating the East Perth Eagles 82-71 at Belmont Oasis with the Joondalup Wolves prevailing 78-72 against the Warwick Senators at Warwick Stadium.
The Saturday night action got underway at HBF Arena with the Joondalup Wolves putting their undefeated recorded on the line against the Mandurah Magic, and delivering the 69-44 win to back up beating the Senators 24 hours earlier.
Amber Land led the way this time for the Lady Wolfpack with 14 points, 11 rebounds and four steals while the legend Casey Mihovilovich had 16 points for the Magic.
Next up was the Willetton Tigers scoring their second win of the season and handing the Perry Lakes Hawks their first defeat with the 80-55 victory. Sam Lubcke was huge for the Tigers with 26 points and seven rebounds while Nat Burton had 10 points and eight boards for the Hawks.
The Lakeside Lightning opened their account in the NBL1 West competition at Lakeside Lightning as well with a thumping 98-48 victory against the South West Slammers.
Emma Clarke delivered 22 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three blocks for Lakeside with Cian Parsons putting up 23 points for the Slammers.
The Cockburn Cougars then improved to 3-0 on the season against the still winless Kalamunda Eastern Suns, winning 63-45 at Wally Hagan Stadium. Jessie Edwards was huge in her first game against her former team delivering 25 points and 12 rebounds.
Round 5 in the NBL1 West Women’s Division will wrap up at midday on Sunday with the Kalamunda Eastern Suns hosting the Willetton Tigers at Ray Owen Sports Centre.
NBL1 WEST – 2021 WOMEN’S SEASON
ROUND 5 – SATURDAY NIGHT
JOONDALUP WOLVES 69 defeated MANDURAH MAGIC 44
The Joondalup Wolves were the dominant team last year in the West Coast Classic and that’s continuing now to start the NBL1 West season after another big win on Saturday night.
Coming off their third straight win to open the NBL1 West Women’s Division season on Friday night over the Warwick Senators, the Lady Wolfpack were back home at HBF Arena on Saturday hosting the Mandurah Magic.
Mandurah was playing its only game of the round having lost their last two games to East Perth and Cockburn but as the game wore on the Wolves proved too strong as they ended up prevailing 69-44.
Joondalup started strongly once again on their home floor as well and by quarter-time they had opened up a 21-11 advantage over the Magic.
By half-time, the Lady Wolfpack had extended their lead to 13 points having held the Magic to just the 24 points the entire first half.
It was more of the same in the second half with Joondalup outscoring Mandurah 15 points to 11 in the third quarter, and then 17 to nine in the fourth to come away with the 25-point victory as they improved to a 4-0 record on the season against the now 1-3 Magic.
Ultimately the major difference between the two teams was the shooting performances. The Wolves ended the night going 43.9 per cent from the field and a brilliant 52.6 per cent from three-point land, hitting 10/19.
Opposed to that, the Magic made just 16/54 from the field at 29.6 per cent and 5/16 from there at 31.3 per cent.
Amber Land was a powerful weapon down low for the Wolfpack to top-score with 14 points to go with 11 rebounds and four steals.
Nes’eya Williams added 12 points for Joondalup, Chelsea Belcher 10 points and two assists, Kayla Steindl 10 points, six rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals, and Georgia Denehey 10 points and two assists.
The legend herself Casey Mihovilovich put up 16 points, three rebounds, three steals and two assists for Mandurah in her 494th appearance for the club.
Serika Shillingsworth also had eight points for the Magic, Rachel Pettit six and Tori Ranson six to go with three rebounds.
WILLETTON TIGERS 80 defeated PERRY LAKES HAWKS 55
The Willetton Tigers bounced back from their first NBL1 West defeat with a commanding performance to beat the Perry Lakes Hawks at home on Saturday night.
Willetton suffered their first loss of the season last Saturday night away to the Rockingham Flames, but they were back to Willetton Basketball Stadium this Saturday to host a Perry Lakes team who had plus just the once so far, and did well to beat the Perth Redbacks narrowly.
But the Tigers got off to a good start on their home floor to go into the quarter-time break leading 21-13.
Willetton managed to continue to extend tehri lead through the second quarter as well before heading into half-time up 40-28.
The Tigers were able to break the game open once and for all in the third quarter as they put up 22 points to just 14 from the Hawks. Another 18 points to 13 in favour of Willetton in the fourth quarter and they went on to score the 80-55 victory.
Neither team shot the ball too great which meant there were plenty of rebounds out there to grab, and Willetton pulled in a monstrous 58 of them for the game 41 from Perry Lakes.
The Tigers had 23 offensive boards as part of that and that helped them end up taking 18 more shots and six extra free-throws than the Lady Hawks in the eventual 25-point win.
South Australian recruit Samantha Lubcke had a huge night for the Tigers finishing 26 points and seven rebounds on shooting 11/22 from the field.
Alex Sharp also put up 16 points, 20 rebounds and seven assists for Willetton, Desiree Kelley 16 points, seven boards and three assists, and Emma Gandini 14 points, six rebounds and three steals.
Morgan Ballantyne ended up top-scoring for Perry Lakes with 11 points and three assists while Millie McCarthy had 10 points and four rebounds, and 10 points and eight boards.
LAKESIDE LIGHTNING 98 defeated SOUTH WEST SLAMMERS 48
Lakeside and the South West Slammers were hunting their first wins of the NBL1 West season on Saturday night, and it was the Lightning who prevailed on their home floor.
Lakeside opened the season under new coach Dave Daniels with losses to the Willetton Tigers by 55 points and East Perth Eagles by five while it’s been a tough opening by the Slammers with losses to Mandurah by 51, Warwick by 50, the Senators again by 79 and Rockingham by 41.
So it was always going to be fascinating to see who could open their account on Saturday night at Lakeside Recreation Centre, and it was the Lightning who proved too good winning 98-48.
Lakeside got off to a fast start and by holding the Slammers to just the six points in the entire first quarter, they soon led by double-figures even in the absence of Ash Isenbarger.
Another 25 points to 14 in the second quarter and the Lightning went into the half-time interval leading 46-20.
It was more of the same in the second half with 27 points to 12 from the Lightning in the third term, and 25 to 16 in the fourth as Lakeside scored their first win of 2021 with the 50-point victory against the Slammers.
It was a nice offensive game the Lightning with 26 assists as the team shot 34/78 at 43.6 per cent and 12/32 from three at 37.5 per cent. They also forced South West into 32 turnovers as they shot 31.7 per cent and went 3/18 from three-point land.
Emma Clarke top-scored for Lakeside with 22 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals.
Mikayla Pirini added 17 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals, Savannah Coleman 16 points and nine boards, Jae Flynn 15 points and seven assists, Kyrah Daniels nine points and Ella Averill eight.
Cian Parsons was a strong fighter all evening for the Slammers finishing with 23 points and 15 rebounds. Skye Palmer also had eight points, three assists and two rebounds.
KALAMUNDA EASTERN SUNS 45 lost to COCKBURN COUGARS 63
The winless Kalamunda hosted the undefeated Cockburn at Ray Owen Sports Centre on Saturday night with the form line continuing with the Cougars taking out the 18-point win over the Eastern Suns.
The Eastern Suns begun life with Craig Mansfield returning as coach having won a championship at Lakeside with a loss to the Joondalup Wolves last week while the Cougars had won their first two games against Rockingham and Mandurah.
Saturday night’s game at Ray Owen Sports Centre saw Cockburn work their way on top by four points at quarter-time in a low-scoring affair.
The offences of both teams continued to struggle in the second quarter with just the 24 points between the two sides, but Cockburn managed to stretch their advantage to 30-24 by the half-time break.
Cockburn turned up its defence further after half-time to hold the Eastern Suns to just the six points in the third quarter. They scored 17 points themselves to extend their lead further and then to end up winning 63-45 to keep their winning start to the season going.
The Cougars dominated the boards with 54 rebounds to 39 from the Suns while they didn’t shoot brilliantly themselves, Cockburn did help limit Kalamunda to going 25 per cent from the field and then going 3/33 at 9.1 per cent from downtown.
It also just happened to be the last game for Jessie Edwards since joining Cockburn from Kalamunda this off-season. She was instrumental in the Cougars win by delivering 25 points and 12 rebounds as well.
Taylah Simmons also had 15 points, five assists and four rebounds for Cockburn, Nicole Roberts seven points and Molly Mathews six to go with 11 rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Jewel Williams put up 14 points and five rebounds for Kalamunda with Courtney Mansfield adding nine points and four boards in her 250th league appearance that including being a championship captain with the Lakeside Lightning in 2018.