The Perth Redbacks continue to build some momentum with Natalie Chou and Anneli Maley in the line-up while the men dug deep to inflict another heartbreaking loss on the Goldfields Giants in NBL1 West Anzac Round.
Anzac Round in the NBL1 West ended on Sunday at Belmont Oasis with a pair of wins for the Perth Redbacks against the Goldfields Giants, with the women prevailing 102-63, and the men then winning a thriller 99-94.
RECAP NBL1 WEST | ANZAC ROUND SATURDAY
RECAP NBL1 WEST | ANZAC ROUND FRIDAY
RECAP NBL1 WEST | ROUND 5 ANZAC DAY
GOULDING SHOCKING HERSELF WITH INSPIRATIONAL RETURN
NELSON EXCITED BY WILLETTON HOME HE'S LANDED AT
WOMEN
Perth Redbacks (102) defeated Goldfields Giants (63)
Natalie Chou is settling in nicely at the Perth Redbacks and she delivered 27 points in Sunday's commanding 102-63 home win against the Goldfields Giants.
The Redbacks were back at home at Belmont Oasis for the Sunday afternoon match up attempting to bounce back from Saturday night's 16-point defeat on the road to the Warwick Senators.
With Perth Lynx WNBL captain Anneli Maley and star import guard Natalie Chou now settling into the line-up, it's an impressive looking Redbacks team they now have available and they proved too much for the Giants on Sunday.
While Jhazmin Joson was doing her best to keep the Giants in the contest, the energy of Maley and the scoring punch of Chou helped the Redbacks open up an 11-point lead in the first quarter on their home floor.
That advantage for the Redbacks continued to grow throughout the rest of the contest including the lead out to 17 points in the second term with Perth up 52-37 at the main break.
It was another 29 points to 12 in the third quarter from the Redbacks with the lead growing to 34 points, and it got out to 39 in the final term which was the final margin.
The victory improves the Redbacks to 3-5 on the season after five rounds with the Giants 1-4 after just the one game this weekend.
Natalie Chou delivered her best performance since arriving at the Redbacks this season with the former Eastern Suns and UCLA guard finishing with 27 points, 10 rebounds, five steals and three assists.
Anneli Maley didn’t have a good shooting afternoon but still made a big contribution ending up with 12 points, 21 rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Brooke Malone continues to emerge into a genuine star with a nother 21 points, four rebounds, four steals and two assists as well for the Redbacks with Mikayla Pirini contributing 15 points and three assists.
Jhazmin Joson tried her best to keep the Giants in the contest finishing with 24 points and two steals on 9/16 shooting from the floor and 5/10 from beyond the three-point arc.
Anne Zipser also had 16 points and five rebounds on 7/10 shooting from the floor with Lawrin Tipene contributing nine points and three boards.
The Redbacks and Giants now do it all again in Kalgoorlie next Saturday night.
PERTH REDBACKS 102 (Chou 27, Malone 21, Maley 12)
GOLDFIELDS GIANTS 63 (Joson 24, Zipser 16, Tipene 9)
MEN
Perth Redbacks (99) defeated Goldfields Giants (94)
The Perth Redbacks dug deep with a performance that could have saved their season while inflicting more heartbreak on the Goldfields Giants for the weekend.
The Giants arrived at Belmont Oasis for the Sunday afternoon match up to close Anzac Round having suffered a nail-biting and exhausting and dramatic overtime loss in Geraldton to the defending champion Buccaneers the night before.
It was then a short turnaround for Goldfields to dust themselves off, get to Perth and prepare for the Sunday afternoon match up against a Redbacks team needing a bounce back win but missing a host of key players.
The Redbacks lost to the Warwick Senators the previous night by 46 points with Tevin Jackson, Joe Cook-Green, Carl Aylett, Cousteau Kyle and Jacob Formosa all unavailable to play.
Perth did regain the services of captain Jackson to host the Giants and it would turn out to be a contest full of some wild momentum swings.
The Redbacks made the flying start opening up a 13-point lead during the first quarter and that got out to a 14-point lead in the second term before they went into half-time leading 61-51.
It was the turn of the Giants to take over the contest in the third quarter, though, as the visitors outscored the Redbacks 25 points to 11 to turn that 10-point deficit at the half to their own nine-point advantage with 5:45 to play when Kon Anguik knocked down the three-pointer.
At 2-5, the Redbacks couldn’t afford to drop another game and despite being shorthanded, they were playing an opponent rightfully who were out on their legs after the previous night.
Perth was able to dig deep and produce a huge finish with Ioannis Dimakopoulos standing tall as a strong rim protector and just his size making life difficult for the Giants including forcing a turnover late from De'Sean Parsons.
Dimakopoulos wound back to last year's preliminary final for Joondalup with a huge three-pointer with three minutes to play too to level scores.
Ultimately the biggest play of the game came with a brilliant pass from Jackson inside to Dimakopoulos for the finish to make it a four-point ball game.
From there, the Redbacks won by five in dramatic fashion to steady at a 3-5 record on the season with the Giants now 2-4 after two heartbreaking road losses inside less than 24 hours.
Tevin Jackson was back into the line-up for the Redbacks and produced 24 points, eight assists and six rebounds.
Maris Colton added 19 points and six rebounds, Ioannis Dimakopoulos 19 points, seven assists and six boards, and Miles Gibson 22 points and eight rebounds.
Kon Anguik finished with 22 points and six rebounds for Goldfields on the back of knocking down 6/7 from three-point territory.
De'Sean Parsons added 21 points, 10 boards and three assists, Jerome Reid 14 points and three rebounds, Randy Bell 11 points, seven assists and four boards, Majier Garang 11 points and 13 rebounds, and Mayo Malek 10 points.
The Redbacks and Giants now do it all again in Kalgoorlie next Saturday night.
PERTH REDBACKS 99 (T Jackson 24, Gibson 22, Colton 19, Dimakopoulos 19)
GOLDFIELDS GIANTS 94 (Anguik 22, Parsons 21, Reid 14)
