It was another big round of basketball in the Jungle last weekend. The Tiger Women kicked off the weekend with their Wildcard Round on Thursday night against the Centre of Excellence.
The CoE jumped out to an early 5 point lead in the first minute of the game, and maintained control for the majority of the first quarter, going into quarter time with a 7 point advantage.
The Tigers then wrestled back the momentum in the second quarter thanks to an incredible 12 point quarter from Alex Sharp, cutting the deficit to just 2 points at the half.
The Tigers put together a solid third quarter, with a total of 7 scorers contributing to their offence. They outscored the CoE 24 – 11 for the quarter, and this saw them move into the lead by 11 at 3 quarter time.
Borlase put the CoE on her shoulders in the last quarter, and on the back of her 11 point final quarter effort, they stormed home to win by a narrow 3 point margin.
Alex Sharp finished with 25 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks. Captain Desiree Kelley had 13 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals and 3 blocks in a great all round performance. Sam Lubcke had a double double with 10 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 steals as she showed her dominance in the paint.
On Saturday night, it was back to the Jungle for our Tigers to face the Rockingham Flames in our final regular season home game.
A big night for all, as we hosted our Past Players from the Willetton Basketball Association. It was a great turnout, and we loved seeing so many familiar faces around the stadium!
The girls put on a show with another heart stopping game! The first quarter the Flames came out hot, and jumped out to a 9 point lead.
Coach Parker settled the girls at quarter time, and they came out and won the remaining 3 quarters.
The win came down to the final plays of the game, with Alex Sharp making 2 crucial free throws with 34 seconds remaining, followed by an important defensive rebound and free throw make by Desiree Kelley with 16 seconds to go.
After a good defensive set, Sam Lubcke was able to grab the final defensive rebound, and see the game out with the Tigers win.
Alex Sharp continued her Foot Locker Player of the Week form with 27 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and a steal. Desiree Kelley had another great game with 22 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Sam Lubcke had yet another double double with 18 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 assists. Grace Foster came off the bench and contributed 13 points and 2 assists in her second game since returning from America where she played the the NBA Women’s Academy Games.
The men were set the task of taking on the second ranked Flames, who were without Greg Hire and Marshall Nelson. The Tigers had their own roster woes with Damien Scott not playing, so the match up was set to be a tough one.
The Tigers had a competitive first quarter, and went into quarter time with a manageable deficit of 5 points.
The second quarter, they outscored the Flames by 4 points to bring the deficit back to just 1 point. Tom Gerovich had a solid quarter against a tough match up in Tom Jervis. He had 6 points for the quarter, and was one of 6 scorers for the Tigers in the second period.
Devondrick Walker proved hard to stop in the third term, and led the Flames to a 6 point lead at 3 quarter time. The Tigers had fought throughout the quarter to stay in touch, and with a quarter to go, their spirited performance seemed set to continue.
The lead for the Flames extended out to as much as 16 points with 7 and a half minutes to go in the game.
The Tigers continued to claw their way back, and a couple of big threes by Hunter Clarke got it back to just 9 points with 4 minutes remaining.
The teams continued trading blows, and the Flames ended up taking out the win by 12 points, despite the efforts of the Tiger’s men.
Mike Vigor had a double double with 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 assists. Travis Fee equal top scored, also having 19 points, along with 4 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals. The big man Tom Gerovich had an impressive 16 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Hunter Clarke hada crucial 11 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal.
Next two weekends the Tigers are away, but the games are close by so make sure you get down to support them!
They take on the Lightning at Lakeside Recreation Centre on Saturday August 6th (Women at 6pm, and Men at 8pm).
On Friday 12th of August, we are at Wally Hagan Stadium taking on the Cockburn Cougars at 6:30pm for the women and 8:30pm for the men.
Round 16 Photo Galleries
Thank you to June for the game day photos!
For the full album of photos from the CoE game, click here
For the full album of Tigers vs Flames Women click here
For the full album of Tigers vs Flames Men click here
