ROUND 15 in the NBL1 West Women’s Division continued on Friday night with the Willetton Tigers and Joondalup consolidating themselves at the top of the standings while the Rockingham Flames and Warwick Senators scored strong wins.
The Tigers and Wolfpack continue to impress as two of the teams to beat this season in the women’s competition which continued on Friday night with their impressive wins while the Flames and Senators snapped losing slides in their fight over top four positions.
Round 15 in the NBL1 West Women’s Division got underway with the one match on Thursday night with the Lakeside Lightning beating the Kalamunda Eastern Suns 81-75 at Ray Owen Sports Centre.
Friday night’s action got underway with the Willetton Tigers retaining top spot with an impressive 70-59 victory against the Perry Lakes Hawks at Bendat Basketball Centre.
Desiree Kelley delivered 21 points and five assists for Willetton and Alex Sharp 15 points and 10 boards while Nat Burton had 14 points for Perry Lakes.
The Joondalup Wolves kept right in the hunt for top spot as well with a big 74-51 win against the Lakeside Lightning at Lakeside Recreation Centre.
Chelsea Belcher delivered 16 points for the Lady Wolfpack and Kayla Steindl 11 with Ash Isenbarger putting up 21 points for Lakeside and Kyrah Daniels 20.
The Rockingham Flames ended their two-game losing slide too with an important 76-53 win against the South West Slammers at Mike Barnett Sports Complex.
Paris Duffield put up 21 points for the Flames, Christina Boag 16, Brooke Malone 14 and Zoe Richards 12 while Adele East delivered 20 points for the Slammers and Zaya Black 12.
The Warwick Senators also kept their top four prospects alive with a 94-67 victory against the Cockburn Cougars at Wally Hagan Stadium.
Stacey Barr and Chloe Forster scored 23 points each for the Senators while Jessie Edwards finished with 17 points and six rebounds for Cockburn.
The round will now conclude on Saturday evening with the Joondalup Wolves playing the Perry Lakes Hawks at HBF Arena and the Warwick Senators up against the East Perth Eagles at Warwick Stadium.
The Willetton Tigers also play host to the Cockburn Cougars while the Kalamunda Eastern Suns are back at home to the Mandurah Magic.
NBL1 WEST – 2021 WOMEN’S SEASON
ROUND 15 – FRIDAY NIGHT
PERRY LAKES HAWKS 59 lost to WILLETTON TIGERS 70
Willetton and Perry Lakes came into Friday night’s clash at Bendat Basketball Centre sitting first and eighth respectively on the table at the start of Round 15 of the NBL1 West Women’s Division, but it was a hotly contested first half.
Perry Lakes went into quarter-time leading 17-16 and their size advantage with Nat Burton, Megan McKay, Maddie Dennis and even Sarah Donovan was working well.
But Willetton were able to get going a little in the second quarter putting up 24 points including a pair of three-pointers apiece to Desiree Kelley and Alex Sharp to see them head into half-time leading 40-36.
The game was still up for grabs at half-time but it wouldn’t stay that way for long with the way Willetton came out and started the second half. The Tigers would go on a 13-0 run capped by a couple of Hayley Winter three-point bombs to stretch their advantage out to double-figures.
Willetton then hit the last six points of the third quarter to be up by 19 at three quarter-time but the Lady Hawks did show some impressive fight.
They refused to give the game away and after a couple of long bombs from Millie McCarthy, and some strong work inside from Burton and McKay, they were back within nine with 3:30 remaining.
That would be as close as they got, though, and the only score in the final three minutes was an Emma Gandini jumper for Willetton to give her team the 70-59 win.
It was a good shooting night from the Tigers who went 41 per cent from the field, but were especially impressive from beyond the arc going 11/24 at 46 per cent to make up for losing the rebound count by nine, and going to the foul line on nine fewer occasions.
Desiree Kelley stepped up to be tremendous for Willetton delivering 21 points and five assists while hitting 5/11 from downtown.
Alex Sharp put up another 15 points, 10 rebounds, five steals, four blocks and three assists for the Tigers while Hayley Winter finished with 11 points, eight assists and six boards, Emma Gandini nine points, six rebounds and three assists, and Sam Lubcke eight points and seven rebounds.
Nat Burton ended up top-scoring for Perry Lakes with 14 points and four rebounds with Mia Satie adding 12 points and eight boards, Millie McCarthy 10 points and six assists, and Megan McKay 10 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals.
LAKESIDE LIGHTNING 51 lost to JOONDALUP WOLVES 74
The Lakeside Lightning couldn’t back up their win from Thursday with the Joondalup Wolves proving too strong on Friday night at Lakeside Recreation Centre.
Just 24 hours earlier and the Lightning scored a hard earned six-point victory on the road to the Kalamunda Eastern Suns, but without Emma Clarke and Mikayla Pirini on Friday night against the Wolfpack, it proved a task beyond them even on their home floor.
The Lady Wolfpack came into the game trying to enhance their prospects of a top two finish on the back of winning last year’s West Coast Classic championship, and having bounced back to beat the Senators last week on the back of a couple of losses.
Lakeside stayed in the playoff hunt the previous night with the win over the Eastern Suns, but Emma Clarke was a big factor in that result and her absence was keenly felt against the Wolves on Friday night along with not having experienced point guard Mikayla Pirini.
Even still, the Lightning actually started well and led the game 24-21 by quarter-time, but it wouldn’t last and the Wolves took over in the second quarter on the back of scoring 23 points to eight to head into half-time leading 44-32.
Scoring continued to be tough for the Lightning throughout the second half and while the Wolfpack weren’t really setting the world alight either, they did enough to still outscore Lakeside after half-time 30 points to 19.
That saw Joondalup come away with the 74-51 victory to improve to a 10-3 record on the season while the Lightning split the weekend to be 5-9 after 15 rebounds with five games in their season remaining.
After their three-point shooting was a little better the night before against Kalamunda, it was again a struggle for Lakeside going 5/26 from beyond the including Ash Isenbarger making just 1/9.
Joondalup was able to shoot better going 13/39 from beyond the arc on the way to the 23-point win.
Chelsea Belcher top-scored for the Lady Wolfpack with 16 points while Kayla Steindl added 11 points and seven rebounds, Rebecca Benson nine points and five boards, Laniesha Paddon eight points, seven boards and three steals, Tia Ucich seven points, five assists and four steals, and Amber Land seven points and 10 boards.
Ash Isenbarger might not have been feeling it from deep but still had 21 points and 11 rebounds for Lakeside with Kyrah Daniels contributing 20 points, six rebounds and five assists, but nobody else hit more than three points.
ROCKINGHAM FLAMES 76 defeated SOUTH WEST SLAMMERS 53
The Rockingham Flames needed a strong response to a couple of losses on Friday night and they delivered that at home to beat the South West Slammers by 23 points.
The Flames had lost their past two matches to the Joondalup Wolves and Willetton Tigers to be beginning to lose touch with the top teams so they had no choice but to respond on Friday night at Mike Barnett Sports Complex at home to the winless Slammers.
South West came into the game having lost all 14 of their matches this season by an average of 52.5 points so for Rockingham to maintain in touch for a top four finish, they had to do something similar on their home floor on Friday night.
Rockingham started strongly with 21 points to 11 in the opening quarter before continuing to put a sizeable gap between them and the Slammers with another 20 points to 13 in the second term to lead 41-24 by half-time.
Rockingham’s offence really found its groove in the third quarter with 29 points while holding the visitors to just the 14.
The Flames struggled with just six points in the fourth quarter and to the credit of the Slammers they put up 15 points themselves but Rockingham still scored the 76-53 victory to improve to 9-5 on the season.
The Slammers fought hard on the glass and actually won the rebound count 45 to 43, but they coughed up 35 turnovers and that saw them get up 20 fewer shots and 13 less free-throws than Rockingham for the game.
Paris Duffield top-scored for the Flames with 21 points, four steals and three rebounds while Christina Boag delivered 16 points, 10 rebounds, five steals, three blocked shots and three assists.
Brooke Malone also put up 14 points and six rebounds for Rockingham, Zoe Richards 12 points and six boards, and Chelsea Petrik five points and four rebounds in her first game of the season and the 300th in the career of the championship winning captain from 2019.
Adele East top-scored for the Slammers finishing with 20 points and five steals while hitting 3/6 from three-point range with Zaya Black contributing 12 points and nine boards, and Cian Parsons eight points and 11 rebounds.
COCKBURN COUGARS 67 lost to WARWICK SENATORS 94
The Warwick Senators kept their top four prospects alive with a big 27-point win over the Cockburn Cougars on Friday night.
Both Cockburn and Warwick met at Wally Hagan Stadium to open their double-headers in Round 15 in the NBL1 West Women’s Division as they attempt to break into a top four position in the run home to playoffs.
The Cougars had snapped their three-game losing run with a win against the South West Slammers last Friday night while the Senators brought with them a two-game losing streak to the trip to Cockburn.
Warwick held a narrow 21-18 advantage by quarter-time away from home before Cockburn turned the tide in the second term with 23 points to 18 to hold a narrow 41-39 edge heading into half-time.
It was all the Senators in the second half, though, as the visitors turned things around in remarkably dominant fashion.
Warwick put up 27 points themselves in the third quarter while limiting Cockburn to just the 14, and then with another 28 points to 12 in the fourth term it was the Senators who romped to the important and emphatic 94-67 victory.
The Senators ended up winning the rebound battle 45 to 38 while they also forced the Cougars into 20 turnovers for the night and they did end up shooting the ball better.
Warwick went 36/70 from the field at 51.4 per cent and 8/17 from downtown at 47.1 per cent with Cockburn finishing up going 26/71 at 36.6 per cent from the floor and 6/24 at 25 per cent from beyond the arc.
Stacey Barr put up 23 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three steals for the Senators while Chloe Forster continued her exciting development with 23 points, six boards and three steals on 3/4 shooting from three-point land.
Tayla Hepburn added 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists for the Senators, Nicole Jorre de St Jorre 11 points, three rebounds and two assists, Caitlyn Jones seven points, three boards and three assists, and Emma Berryman seven points and three rebounds in her 349th game.
Jessie Edwards top-scored for Cockburn with 17 points, six rebounds and three assists with Taylah Simmons adding 12points, seven boards and four assists, Jesni Cooper eight points and three rebounds, and Olivia Bassett-Scarfe seven points.