Kyle Armour led the Lakeside Lightning to a third straight NBL1 West win on Friday night with the Rockingham Flames spoiling Gavin Field's milestone with the Cockburn Cougars with the Joondalup Wolves and Perth Redbacks splitting their evening at HBF Arena.
The two women's NBL1 West matches on Friday night saw the Lakeside Lightning defeat the South West Slammers 118-62 and the Joondalup Wolves win big 97-71 against the Perth Redbacks.
Then in the corresponding men's fixtures, the Lightning defeated the Slammers 100-84 and the Redbacks defeated the Wolves 85-66 while the unbeaten Rockingham Flames kept the Cockburn Cougars winless 107-85.
WOMEN
Lightning build confidence with thumping of Slammers
The Lakeside Lightning inflicted some more early season pain on the South West Slammers with Friday night's 118-62 win at Lakeside Recreation Centre.
The Lightning had been a mixed bag to start the season winning just one of the first five matches, but the Slammers had found the going tough averaging 45-point losses to Mandurah and Kalamunda.
It didn’t get any easier for new coach Alex Ciabattoni on Friday and she even had to hit the court herself for three and-a-half minutes to try and help her young team.
It mattered little, though, with the Lightning proving too strong starting with 28 points to 13 in the opening period. A massive 41 points in the second saw Lakeside up 69-27 by half-time before cruising to the 56-point victory on their home floor.
New import Laci Hawthorne delivered 24 points, 14 rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks for Lakeside with captain Caitie Jones feeling better than last week for 21 points, eight assists, five steals and four boards while draining 5/11 from deep.
Kylee Smith added 16 points, three rebounds and three assists, Jade Gowland 14 points, and Molly Wilson 12 points.
It was tough going for the Slammers but Bree Chalk top-scored with 15 points and two steals in just under 16 minutes. Alexis Donovan added 10 points and four rebounds, and Javene Fitch eight points, three boards and two assists.
Lakeside stretching the floor expertly ?
— NBL1 (@NBL1) April 21, 2023
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Wolves stay undefeated and keep Redbacks winless
The Joondalup Wolves continued their undefeated start to the NBL1 West season with a dominant 97-71 win against the winless Perth Redbacks.
After starting last season winning their opening 16 matches, the Wolfpack are off on a similar run to begin 2023 but it took until the second half for them to work on top of the Redbacks at HBF Arena Joondalup.
The Wolves only led 42-36 by the half-time break, but they took over outscoring the Redbacks 55 to 35 in the second half to end up winning by 26 to improve to 4-0 on the season with Perth slipping to 0-4.
Coming off her promising WNBL season at the Perth Lynx, Robbi Ryan delivered 29 points and 11 rebounds on 12/17 shooting for the Wolfpack with Teige Morrell contributing 19 points, six rebounds and four blocks, Chelsea Belcher 19 points, four boards and three assists, and Nes'eya Parker-Williams 12 points, six rebounds and three steals.
Despite the good first half signs, it was another tough night for the Redbacks with Mikayla Pirini top-scoring with 14 points and four assists while Bri Bailey added 11 points and two assists, and Shenae Hartree 10 points, five rebounds and two assists.
There was encouraging news for the Redbacks with the return of Raya Thompson from another knee injury. She had three points, three rebounds and two steals in over 10 minutes of court time.
Robbi Ryan wastes no time from tip-off! ??
— NBL1 (@NBL1) April 21, 2023
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MEN
Armour leads Lightning to third consecutive win
The Lakeside Lightning made it three straight wins and again veteran point guard Kyle Armour led the charge in the 100-84 home win against the South West Slammers.
After losing the opening three matches of the season under new coach Mike Malat, Lakeside is now building some nice momentum with the fitting in of imports Hayden Brown and Daniel Green, and the form of 276-game veteran Armour running the ship.
The Lightning still had to work hard to overcome the Slammers, though, on Friday night leading by five points at quarter-time, 15 at half-time and then ending up winning by 16 to improve to 3-3 with South West now 1-3.
Armour has returned to Lakeside this season for his second stint with the club and was terrific again with 31 points and five assists while shooting 10/14 from the floor, 4/6 from long-range and 7/8 from the foul line.
Dom Jackson finished with 15 points and five rebounds, Hayden Brown 14 points, three boards and three steals, Daniel Green 13 points and five rebounds, and Max Richards 12 points and four boards.
The Slammers did battle hard with Ben Stevens producing 26 points, nine rebounds, five blocks and four assists. Manyiel Wugol also had 19 points, three boards, three assists and three steals, and Buay Tuach 14 points, five assists and four rebounds.
What just happened here?! ?
— NBL1 (@NBL1) April 21, 2023
Ridiculous effort on both ends - Ben Stevens on defence, and Buay Tuach with the ??? ?
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Redbacks hand Wolfpack another loss at home
The rollercoaster start to the season of the Perth Redbacks took an upward turn again on Friday night with he 85-66 road victory against the Joondalup Wolves.
With coach Charles Nix taking his Redbacks back to HBF Arena Joondalup to face the team he won the West Coast Classic women's championship with back in 2020, Perth started on fire to blow the Wolves away with 30 points to 10 in the opening quarter.
That ended up setting the tone for the rest of the evening with the Redbacks going on to win by 19 points to improve to 3-2 on the season and bounce back from last week's narrow loss to the Perry Lakes Hawks.
Tevin Jackson produced 23 points and six rebounds in the win for Perth with Maris Colton adding 17 points, six boards, two assists and two blocks. Joel Vaiangina also had eight points and six rebounds against his old team.
Yet another former Wolves player, Louis Timms, put up 16 points and five rebounds for the Redbacks.
The Wolfpack now slip to 2-3 to start the season after getting 22 points from Mathiang Muo with Quintin Dove contributing 16 points and six rebounds, and CJ Turnage 11 points, five boards, three assists and three steals.
However, the two Joondalup imports combined to shoot 11/30 from the field and 0/10 from three-point range.
Where did Maris Colton come from? ????
— NBL1 (@NBL1) April 21, 2023
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Flames blow away Cougars early to continue unbeaten start
The Cockburn Cougars were after a big response in captain Gavin Field's 300th game, but they got anything but that to start Friday's clash away to the Rockingham Flames with the reigning champs going on to win 107-85.
Cockburn were a top four team in the NBL1 West last season but started 2023 losing its opening four matches including horror losses by a combined 79 points against Willetton and Geraldton.
That included the 37-point loss to the Buccs at home last Sunday so they needed to respond on Friday night at Mike Barnett Sports Complex with the added incentive of captain, championship winner and six-time club MVP Field playing his 300th game.
However, within minutes of the game starting and the result was virtually beyond doubt with Rockingham racing to a remarkable 15-2, and 33-9 start.
To Cockburn's credit, they did fight hard from that point on and managed to limit the damage and stick with the Flames the rest of the way.
However, they could never seriously threaten a comeback even with Rockingham having multiple time NBL and league championship winning centre Tom Jervis ejected for rapid fire unsportsmanlike and tech fouls early in the third quarter.
The Flames were already without Justin and Callum Beard, but they had the depth to cover.
While the Cougars did fight hard over the last three quarters with Luke and Keegan Phillips, and Kieran Berry leading the way, Rockingham remained in charge to end up winning by 22 to improve to 5-0 in their championship defence and leave the Cougars 0-5.
Reigning MVP Devondrick Walker had another 28 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists for Rockingham with Marshall Nelson adding 20 points and six assists, Jeremy Combs 19 points, eight boards and four assists, Cody Hill 13 points, and Ryan Godfrey 13 points and three assists.
Luke Phillips finished with 22 points and five rebounds for Cockburn with Courtney Alexander II putting up 14 points and 14 boards, Kieran Berry 14 points, and Keegan Phillips nine points, five assists and four rebounds.
However, for the Cougars to pull themselves out of the hole they're in they needed more from milestone man Field (five points, 2/11), vice-captain Seva Chan (five points, three rebounds, three assists), emerging star Josh Hunt (six points, two boards) and import guard Taj Benning (six points, five rebounds).
Devondrick Walker's pull up was ???? ?????? ?
— NBL1 (@NBL1) April 21, 2023
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