NBL1 West Recap | Friday Men's Round 1

The Cockburn Cougars and Perth Redbacks opened up the 2022 NBL1 West Men's season with big Friday night wins while the Perry Lakes Hawks started their championship defence holding on in a thriller.

The Perry Lakes Hawks opened up the 2022 NBL1 West season by unfurling their championship banner at Bendat Basketball Centre and they were in control of the opener against the Warwick Senators most of the way.

However, the Senators even without captain Cody Ellis and coach Luke Brennan still tied scores up late, but the Hawks did enough to come away with the 93-91 victory.

Matt Leary top-scored for Perry Lakes on the back of a breakout season in 2021 with 17 points and 10 rebounds while Bryan Michaels made a spectacular first appearance for the Senators with 37 points and five assists.

The Cockburn Cougars made an emphatic statement of how ready they are to go to open the 2022 season, beating the East Perth Eagles 98-54 at Wally Hagan Stadium.

New imports Paschal Chukwu (21 points, 16 rebounds) and Carter Skaggs (17 points, five threes) were impressive for the Cougars while Fabian Johnson put up 12 points for the Eagles.

The Perth Redbacks then ran right away with their clash with the Kalamunda Eastern Suns at Ray Owen Sports Centre, with last year's semi finalists ending up winning 85-52 to open the new season.

Tevin Jackson put up 26 points and seven rebounds for Perth while returning the league, Ben Smith showed he still has plenty to offer with 22 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. Xavier Shaw had 11 points and nine rebounds for the Eastern Suns.

The opening round in NBL1 West Men's action will continue now on Saturday night with the Goldfields Giants first up at home in Kalgoorlie to take on the Lakeside Lightning.

Then at 7pm, the Willetton Tigers are at home to the Joondalup Wolves at Willetton Basketball Stadium. The South West Slammers play the Geraldton Buccaneers at Eaton Recreation Centre, and then lastly at 8pm, the Rockingham Flames host the Mandurah Magic.

Then on Sunday, the Mandurah Magic are at home to the Geraldton Buccaneers and the Perth Redbacks host the South West Slammers at Belmont Oasis.

NBL1 WEST – 2022 MEN'S SEASON
ROUND 1 – FRIDAY NIGHT

COCKBURN COUGARS 98 defeated EAST PERTH EAGLES 54

The Cockburn Cougars sent an early message to start the NBL1 West season by delivering a 44-point hammering on a shorthanded East Perth Eagles at Wally Hagan Stadium.

The Cougars are coming off reaching the semi finals a season ago in the inaugural NBL1 West competition and have high hopes of building on that further in 2022.

They have added impressive looking imports Paschal Chukwu and Carter Skaggs, and while most other teams are still waiting to have their full squad available, the Cougars showed they are ready and raring to go right from Round 1 on Friday night.

East Perth still has some talent to bring in led by 2017 Grand Final MVP Lee Roberts, but this was a season opening night to savour on their home floor from the Cougars.

It was a bit of a grind early on and after the opening quarter Cockburn only led 14-8, but the home team turned it on a bit more in the second period with 27 points to 15 to take a commanding 41-23 advantage into half-time.

Cockburn pulled away further in the third quarter with another 29 points to 20, and then finished the deal with 28 points to 11 in the fourth to run away big winners over the Eagles, 98-54.

The Cougars didn’t shoot the ball that great going at 42 per cent from the field and just 27 per cent from three, but they dominated the possession game taking 12 more shots and 14 extra free-throws than East Perth.

That was on the back of a dominance on the glass with 64 rebounds to 44 including 21 on the offensive end to 12. The Cougars also shared the ball well with 26 assists on their 36 made field goals.

There was plenty to like from the Cougars performance including new import big man Paschal Chukwu producing 21 points and 16 rebounds on 9/13 shooting.

Fellow new import Carter Skaggs had 17 points and seven rebounds on 5/14 shooting from three with Gavin Field putting up 12 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals, Jaarod Holmes 11 points, five boards and five assists, Josh Hunt 10 points, and Keegan Phillips 10 points, four rebounds and three assists.

It was a tough way to start the new season for the Eagles with Fabian Johnson top-scoring with 12 points and four rebounds.

Jarrad Anastasio added seven points and seven rebounds, Elijah Pawson seven points and two boards, Logan Thwaites six points and three rebounds, James Bosnakis six points and nine boards, and Jesse Pollock six points. 

 

PERRY LAKES HAWKS 93 defeated WARWICK SENATORS 91

The two teams played off in the West Coast Classic Grand Final two years ago and always have some tremendous match ups and this was no different to open the 2022 NBL1 West season at Bendat Basketball Centre.

The Senators won that West Coast Classic championship on the same floor back in 2020 and then last year the Hawks made it two championships and a Grand Final appearances over the past four years.

It's the beginning a new era at Warwick as well with legendary coach Mike Ellis moving on with long-time Wolfpack and current Perth Wildcats assistant Luke Brennan taking over, but he wasn’t available on Friday night leaving Stephen Charlton to take over for the evening.

Captain Cody Ellis also was sidelined with a sore calf and on the same night that they raised their championship banner, Perry Lakes started well and appeared in control of the contest for much of the evening.

The Hawks shot right out of the blocks scoring the first seven points of the game including a triple from games record holding captain Ben Purser. A Matt Leary triple then kept Perry Lakes on top 12-7 and they kept the scoring going to end up leading 30-23 by the end of one.

Perry Lakes was able to continue to stretch the lead with another 25 points to 18 in the second quarter to head into the half-time break on top 55-41.

Another three ball from Leary stretched the Perry Lakes lead to 15 early in the third quarter but Bryan Michaels was lighting it up in his first appearances for the Senators, and when he hit another from downtown just before three quarter-time, the margin was just five.

Five quick Caleb Davis points early in the fourth soon saw scores all tied up but a triple from Ryan Smith and then inside finish from Andrew Ferguson restored a five-point edge for the Hawks.

Leary stretched that back to seven and from there Perry Lakes was able to secure the 93-91 win even though a Corban Wroe three ball with a couple of seconds left did make it briefly interesting.

The Perry Lakes success over the past four years with Matt Parsons as coach has been around the even contributions they get across the board, and that was again on show in the season opener with five players scoring in double-figures, and 10 scoring in total.

Matt Leary is fresh off a breakout season and is looking set to back that up with 17 points and 10 rebounds while Ryan Smith added 16 points and two assists, Ben Purser 15 points and four assists, Andrew Ferguson 13 points and nine rebounds, and Adam Thoseby 12 points and six boards.

Former Lakeside guard and Perth Wildcats development player Bryan Michaels had a stunning debut for Warwick with 37 points, five assists, three rebounds and three steals on 13/30 shooting from the field and 6/15 from beyond the arc.

Caleb Davis put up 26 points and five rebounds, George Pearl 11 points and four boards, and Corban Wroe eight points, eight rebounds, eight assists and four steals.

 

KALAMUNDA EASTERN SUNS 52 lost to PERTH REDBACKS 85

The start of a new era at Kalamunda Eastern Suns might not have had an ideal start at home on Friday night but this is a Perth Redbacks team that looks on a mission in 2022.

The Eastern Suns have a new coach in 2022 in the form of dual championship winner Ben Ettridge and he has been able to entice Reece Maxwell, Rob Huntington and Seb Salinas across from the Wolves for them to all have one last crack at it in the league together.

However, coming up against a man that Ettridge knows so well, CJ Jackson and his Redbacks, was always going to be a challenging way to open up the new season at Ray Owen Sports Centre.

It played out that way too with the Redbacks looking to build on reaching the preliminary final a season ago and having recruited Jerami Grace and Ben Smith to help with that.

They were without Louis Timms against his former team on Friday night, and it was a tight battle early with the Redbacks only leading 21-18 by quarter-time.

Perth was able to pull away a little further in the second period putting up 24 points and holding Kalamunda to 11 to head into half-time with a 45-29 advantage.

Things were tough for both sides in the third quarter but the Eastern Suns did an outstanding job defensively to restrict the Redbacks to just eight points and to cut the three quarter-time deficit to just nine.

However, it was all the Redbacks from there as they turned it on impressively in the final period with 32 points to eight to run out 85-52 winners to open the new season.

It was the shooting that was the major different. The Redbacks went at a solid 31/67 at 46 per cent from the floor and 8/23 at 35 per cent from three. Kalamunda took an extra field goal but shot just at 21/68 at 31 per cent and 2/26 at 8 per cent from downtown.

Tevin Jackson showed he's ready for a big impact this season for the Redbacks putting up 26 points and seven rebounds.

Ben Smith marked his return to the league with a strong performance inside showing he still has plenty to offer at this level with 22 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks, two assists and two steals.

Jerami Grace had seven points on debut for the Redbacks despite foul trouble with Kyden Edman contributing nine points and four rebounds, and the club games record holder league all-time assists leader Joel Wagner six points, six assists, five steals and three rebounds.

Xavier Shaw top-scored for the Eastern Suns with 11 points and nine rebounds with Rob Huntington contributing 10 points, three rebounds and two steals, Jacob Formosa seven points and three steals, and Tom Atkinson six points and nine rebounds.