The Cockburn Cougars made it two wins inside less than 18 hours in the NBL1 West Women's competition with a hard earned victory against the Goldfields Giants on Sunday.
Round 3 of the NBL1 West Women's competition began on Friday night with four matches which included Casey Mihovilovich equalling the league's games played record by starring in Mandurah Magic's 67-48 win over the Perth Redbacks.
The Joondalup Wolves also defeated the Perry Lakes Hawks 83-66, the Lakeside Lightning beat the Rockingham Flames 103-101 in a high-scoring thriller and the Warwick Senators defeated the Kalamunda Eastern Suns 95-69.
That led into the two matches on Saturday evening which saw the Cockburn Cougars overpower the remarkably youthful South West Slammers 111-22 at Eaton Recreation Centre.
The second match on Saturday night saw the East Perth Eagles defeat the Goldfields Giants 78-62 at Herb Graham Recreation Centre.
Sunday's lone Round 3 match up then saw the Cougars win their second game of the weekend beating the Giants 88-76 at Wally Hagan Stadium.
The final game of the round then takes place on Monday with the annual ANZAC Day fixture between the Kalamunda Eastern Suns and Willetton Tigers at Ray Owen Sports Centre from 1pm.
NBL1 WEST – 2022 WOMEN'S SEASON
ROUND 3 – SUNDAY
COCKBURN COUGARS 88 defeated GOLDFIELDS GIANTS 76
Sunday's lone game in the NBL1 West Women's competition was always going to be intriguing on a number of fronts between the Cockburn Cougars and Goldfields Giants at Wally Hagan Stadium.
Both teams were coming off playing on Saturday night with the Cougars winning big by 89 points over the South West Slammers while the Giants put in a competitive showing before losing to the East Perth Eagles by 16 points.
It was then a short turnaround with the Cougars having played in Eaton the previous night and the Giants beginning their first ever road double in their inaugural season with the 11am the next morning.
With Cockburn hunting a third win from four games so far in the 2022 season and Goldfields still out to win their first game, things were set up nicely for an intriguing Sunday match up in their first ever NBL1 West meeting.
It was a tight contest most of the way too and it was a high-scoring opening with the two teams combining for 52 points in the first quarter with the Cougars ending up leading 28-24 by quarter-time.
Cockburn was able to pull away a little further in the second period with 23 points to 18 to head into the half-time break leading 51-42.
The Giants really fired back to make a game of it in the third quarter with import Danielle McCray and the experienced Emma Klasztorny leading the charge.
They were able to make it a four-point game by three quarter-time, but that was as close as they would get to their first ever victory with the Cougars steadying enough to claim the 88-76 victory and improve to 3-1 on the season with Alina Hartmann still to come in.
Even if the Cougars shot just 36.3 per cent from the floor for the game and the Giants went at 38.3 per cent, it was an entertaining contest.
Cockburn did go 13/40 from three-point land opposed to 5/18 from Goldfields while there were plenty of rebounds to go around with both teams snaffling 52 of them apiece.
It was a third win from four matches so far this season for Cockburn with former Sun Jewel Williams putting up 24 points and five rebounds on 4/11 shooting from downtown.
New import guard Kat Tudor continued her impressive start to her first season down under too with 20 points, 10 rebounds and two assists with 4/9 shooting from deep while Haylee De Sousa ran the team well with 17 points.
Jessie Edwards was a powerful force inside once more as well with 13 points, 16 rebounds, six blocks and four assists.
The Giants might be still chasing that first victory in their inaugural NBL1 West season but there were plenty of encouraging signs in the performance with Danielle McCray leading the charge with 20 points, seven assists and four rebounds.
Emma Klasztorny has joined the Giants this season after being a stalwart with the Mandurah Magic as part of her family's legacy at the club, and she worked tirelessly on Sunday as you expect with 17 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals while hitting three of her team's five three-pointers.
Jemma Gatti added 13 points, 13 rebounds and four assists for Goldfields, Amanda Waymont 10 points and 15 rebounds, and Haley Waites nine points and four assists.
