Willetton Tigers coach Simon Parker is rightfully proud of having secured the first ever NBL1 West regular season championship and to have done it on the back of mostly a local group of players and with defence as their backbone.
The Tigers were the powerhouse club of the Women’s SBL competition between 1989 and 2019, winning eight championships from 12 Grand Final appearances which included Parker being at the helm of the 2016 title and 2015 decider.
Willetton has always prided itself on their local talent and their development programs, and that’s why Parker continues to back in a group made up largely of local Tigers players and the same has been the case coming into the inaugural NBL1 West season.
Sure, he has recruited potentially the best one-two punch across the country in the form of Sam Lubcke and MVP Alex Sharp, but he is proud of the fact of the mix he has with the rest of the group with a good blend of experienced and youthful Willetton products.
The end result has seen the Tigers put together a 15-3 record throughout the NBL1 West regular season and end up finishing above the Joondalup Wolves in first place thanks to percentage as a reward for their efforts.
While performing now in the finals starting on Saturday night in the qualifying final against the East Perth Eagles is what Parker and the Tigers are focusing everything on, he is proud of the achievement of finishing in first place.
“It is obviously nice to finish in first place. It’s a nice goal to aim for and we’ve done it with a team all of Willetton players which we’re pretty proud of as well along with a couple of key inclusions,” Parker said.
“But that was the goal to finish on top especially when it got to the back end and we had four or five games left and it looked a real possibility. We set the goal to finish on top and it’s nice to achieve that now.”
Coming into Saturday’s final game of the regular season away to the Lakeside Lightning, the Tigers still needed to win to guarantee first place even though they already locked away a top two position along with the Lady Wolfpack.
Willetton just had to win the game to stay in top spot at the end of the regular season but it was a bit of a tricky game with them without experienced pair Sam Lubcke and Taryn Priestly, and the Lightning still dangerous with a team consistent of Perth Lynx WNBL pair Ash Isenbarger and Emma Clarke.
Lakeside was determined to finish their season on a high and started impressively after Willetton did go up 5-2 early. Clarke got the Lightning going before Alecia Knowles knocked down a three ball to put the home team in front.
Clarke then drained a three to give Lakeside the early 10-5 lead on the 8-0 run. A couple more Lightning triples to Kyrah Daniels and Jaime Skeggs saw the Lightning continue their impressive start, and the home team went into quarter-time on top 25-16.
Ash Isenbarger hit a three ball as well to open the second quarter for Lakeside to lead 28-16 as the Lightning put the onus back on the Tigers to respond if they wanted to win and claim that top spot.
Three-pointers from Talicia Hansen and Desiree Kelley started the comeback for the Tigers before five quick points from Alex Sharp and a triple from Emma Gandini had the visitors within a point.
Willetton turned that into an 11-0 run thanks to an and-one from Sharp as Willetton took the lead, and then carried on the momentum into half-time to be up 49-43 on the back of scoring 33 of the last 48 points of the opening half.
Willetton had found its groove even without the presence of Lubcke inside and with the Lightning not having the poise and experience in the backcourt of Mikayla Pirini, the Tigers turned up the defensive heat and it showed.
Ther were times the Lightning simply couldn’t get the ball past halfway even having the ball stolen from them, throwing it away with poor passes or using up the eight seconds.
Willetton took advantage of their defensive prowess by holding the Lightning to eight points in the third quarter. They scored 24 points themselves to assume control, and then ended up cruising to the 84-66 victory.
Alex Sharp took over for Willetton in the absence of Sam Lubcke to finish the afternoon with 27 points, 10 rebounds and six assists while shooting 10/18 from the field and 5/5 from the free-throw line before being named league MVP that evening.
Sophie Maines also put up 11 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists for the Tigers, Desiree Kelley 11 points and three rebounds, and Sophie Doran 10 points and six boards.
Hayley Winter also had eight points, six rebounds and five assists for Willetton while Talicia Hansen hit two threes for six points and it was another defensive master class from Emma Gandini to go with six points, six steals and five rebounds.
Parker was happy enough with the performance after quarter-time.
“The initial talk was to make sure we were ready to go because Lakeside had nothing to lose and we had it all to gain, and we didn’t really get that done in the first quarter,” Parker said.
“We probably could have hit a few more shots to stop them getting out to a bit of a lead, but after quarter-time it was all about locking down on D and we got it done from there.”
Willetton certainly has enough offensive firepower to get the job done highlighted with their 129 points they put up in a 96-point hammering of the South West Slammers a couple of weeks back.
They averaged 85.1 points a game but it was at the defensive end that Parker has focused most of his attention and that he takes most pride in. Willetton gave up just 63.4 points a game this season and under their goal of 65 in 10 of their 18 matches.
“Our No. 1 focus is our defence and to try and keep teams to around 65 points or under,” Parker said.
“We’ve been doing that for pretty much all season and we make that a huge focus, but it helps when you have people like Emma Gandini on the ball and Desi in the lane, Doran on the ball, Hayley Winter there too and Alex Sharp in the post. It’s just all come together for us especially at the defensive end.
“The key to how deep and talented we are is not about the offence, but when we bring the next two or three girls on they are playing defence and can lock people down which is the most important thing for us. Being so deep also gives you the opportunity to also mix things up and do different things with the team.”
As good as the regular season was for the Tigers, Parker knows that a new season starts now in the playoffs starting with Saturday’s qualifying final against the Eagles at Willetton Basketball Stadium.
They have at least earned themselves a double chance, but that’s out the window beyond Saturday night no matter the result and Parker is looking forward to seeing what his Tigers can produce over the next three weeks.
“The scary part of the finals is that it’s a reset of the season now. We do get a double chance obviously for that first game, but after that it’s all about if you lose the one game your season is over. The girls and the players and the coaches and everyone are all aware of that, and we’re looking forward to it,” Parker said.
“It is exciting to get to this part of the year. We’ve been going since October so it has been a very, very long season but the girls and coaches are focused on what’s ahead for us. We are just concentrating on what we need to know and we know how hard it’s going to get from here, but we’re ready for it.”
Saturday night’s qualifying final is going to be fascinating and it could well feature the best three players in the league with Alex Sharp and Sam Lubcke from Willetton, and Mary Goulding from East Perth.
There will be plenty more players who will have a say in the result and Parker is expecting a tough challenge from Blake Srdarev’s team.
“That will be an interesting match up. I know they’ve got a couple of key players out which isn’t great for them, but they are always going to be pretty competitive with Goulding and Opal Mader running around,” Parker said.
“The key is going to be the star players on each team. We are going to need to slow Mary down and that will go a long way to us winning the game, but if we don’t then I think they are a chance of knocking us off again.”
NBL1 WEST WOMEN’S DIVISION 2021
ROUND 18
FRIDAY
Perth Redbacks 77 defeated Cockburn Cougars 65
Perry Lakes Hawks 87 lost to Warwick Senators 92
East Perth Eagles 61 lost to Kalamunda Eastern Suns 72
Mandurah Magic 82 defeated Lakeside Lightning 64
Rockingham Flames 69 lost to Joondalup Wolves 77
SATURDAY
Lakeside Lightning 66 lost to Willetton Tigers 84
Cockburn Cougars 88 defeated South West Slammers 55