NBL1 West Recap | Friday Night Men's Round 1

Reigning West Coast Classic champions the Warwick Senators sent a message on the opening night of the NBL1 West Men's competition on Friday night with first up wins also for the Joondalup Wolves, Mandurah Magic and Rockingham Flames.

It was a historic occasion on Friday night with the first ever NBL1 West action taking place having replaced the State Basketball League that started up back in 1989 as an upgrade on the previously run district competition.

The West Coast Classic happened in place of the cancelled SBL season in 2020 thanks to COVID-19 but now 2021 is seeing the new NBL1 West competition up and running and it all got underway on Friday evening.

The Joondalup Wolves played in the previous five SBL Grand Finals and made a winning start to their new life in NBL1 West beating the East Perth Eagles 98-57 on Friday night at HBF Arena.

Then also on Friday night, the Mandurah Magic looked good on their home floor defeating the South West Slammers 89-67 at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre.

The Rockingham Flames were the only road team to score an opening night victory defeating the Cockburn Cougars 86-72 at Wally Hagan Stadium.

And then there was the West Coast Classic champions of last year, the Warwick Senators scoring a big win over the shorthanded Perth Redbacks 86-52 at Warwick Stadium.

The opening round in the NBL1 West Men's competition continues on Saturday night with the South West Slammers at home to the Warwick Senators, the East Perth Eagles playing the Mandurah Magic, the Goldfields Giants hosting the Perry Lakes Hawks, and the Willetton Tigers battling the Lakeside Lightning at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

NBL1 WEST – 2021 MEN'S SEASON
ROUND 1 – FRIDAY NIGHT

JOONDALUP WOLVES 98 defeated EAST PERTH EAGLES 57

It has been a celebration long in the making and the Joondalup Wolves celebrated the 450th appearance of inspirational captain Seb Salinas in style on Friday night, marking the opening of NBL1 West with the 98-57 win over the East Perth Eagles.

Salinas had played 449 games in the SBL up until the end of 2019 and even though he still played some outstanding basketball in the West coast Classic, those matches didn’t count to his official tally so this 450-game milestone took a long time coming.

And it's taken a change in name and ownership of the league with it now falling under the NBL banner to be NBL1 West, but what didn’t change was how impressive the Wolfpack are looking and it was a memorable milestone occasion for Salinas on Friday against the Eagles.

The Wolves won the game by 41 points and Salinas made his usual strong contribution with 11 points, seven rebounds and knocked down three-pointers.

It was the ideal way for him to celebrate game 450 which started way back in 2003 at the then Stirling Senators. He joined the Wolves in 2010 and that's where the last 296 of his games have been played.

Along the way he won championships with the Wolfpack in 2011 and 2015, and was part of the Grand Finals in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 while being a three-time club MVP in a career that looks to still have at least one more strong season in it.

The Wolfpack took part in the last five SBL Grand Finals and they were still a strong outfit in last year's West Coast Classic competition but found a host of their key players unavailable on finals weekend so they were bundled out in the semi finals by the Perry Lakes Hawks.

The 41-point win at home signalled that the Wolves are on track to be a force again in 2021 and it was Lochlan Cummings leading the charge with 30 points, six assists and four rebounds while going 5/14 from three-point territory.

Joel Vaiangina was supposed to be a Joondalup recruit last year before the SBL season didn’t eventuate, but he's arrived in 2021 and provided 14 points and five rebounds on debut with Jacob Formosa also putting up 14 points, five steals, four rebounds and two assists.

The ever-reliable Rob Huntington also opened the NBL1 West season with 10 points and five rebounds.

Kieran Berry was the only East Perth player on the night to reach double-figures ending up with 11 points while Jayden Coburn had eight points and three rebounds, and Jarrad Anastasio six points and seven rebounds, Mateo Campbell six points and four boards, and Andrej Donlagic six points, eight rebounds and four assists.

 

MANDURAH MAGIC 89 defeated SOUTH WEST SLAMMERS 67

Despite the eventual 22-point margin in favour of the Mandurah Magic, they had an entertaining opening contest in the NBL1 West at home to the South West Slammers on Friday night.

Potentially for the first time in his tenure as coach with the Magic after arriving from having a loaded Geraldton Buccaneers team to begin his SBL coaching journey, 422-game NBL veteran Aaron Trahair might have a team capable of going places in the NBL1 West in 2021.

Certainly based on the signs on Friday night at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre and with further improvement to come, the signs were exciting as the Magic defeated the Slammers 89-67.

By quarter-time, Mandurah was leading 22-14 but to the full credit of the Slammers they outscored the Magic 25 points to 22 in the second quarter with the home team only clinging to a 44-39 advantage at the main break.

Then after the Slammers closed to within five to open the second half, Mandurah took over the game with the next eight points and the margin was soon out beyond double-digits.

The margin was then 18 just before three quarter-time thanks to Jhonny Lutula and the Magic went on the job in the last quarter outscoring the Slammers 24 points to 16 to claim the season-opening 22-point win. 

New recruit Fred Williams was encouraging for Mandurah finishing with 19 points, three rebounds and two assists while returning experienced big man Ben Smith had 18 points and three rebounds in almost 22 minutes.

Xavier Shaw impressed at the Geraldton Buccaneers last year and looks capable of doing the same with the Magic in 2021 after 13 points and six rebounds while Akau Deng finished with 10 points and six rebounds, Riley Parker nine points, eight boards and six assists, and Jerami Grace nine points, six boards, three assists and three steals.

Mitch Keller proved what an outstanding workhorse he was with the Slammers in a tough West Coast Classic campaign in 2020. He showed he is back to do it all again after putting up 19 points, 14 rebounds and three steals on Friday night in Mandurah.

Cory Richardson also had 12 points and four assists for the Slammers, Alastair Ishigami-Sims eight and Travis Vogel eight to go with three rebounds.

 

COCKBURN COUGARS 72 lost to ROCKINGHAM FLAMES 86

The Rockingham Flames have plenty of talent yet to arrive for this NBL1 West season but based on Friday night, they are going to be impressive early on too after a 14-point road win against the Cockburn Cougars.

Greg Hire, Tom Jervis and imports Kentrall Barkley and Jalen Bradley could all still end up joining this Rockingham team throughout the 2021 NBL1 West season that already made a winning start against the Cougars at Wally Hagan Stadium.

Cockburn did race out to a 10-2 start on their home floor and they remained on top 19-10 after a Daniel Rogers dunk forcing Flames coach Ryan Petrik into a timeout.

The Cougars still led 21-16 by quarter-time and Gavin Field made that 25-16 to start the second period, but the Flames worked their way back into the contest and in fact a three-point play from inspirational captain Ryan Godfrey put them in front 37-35.

Rockingham then continued to pull away throughout the second half with 28 points to 23 from Cockburn in the third period to lead 65-58 by three quarter-time.

The Flames then closed the deal with 21 points to 14 in the fourth to claim the strong 14-point victory away from home.

Ryan Godfrey is closing in on playing 250 games for the Rockingham Flames and he started off the NBL1 West in fine form on Friday night delivering 23 points, six assists and two steals.

Travis Durnin also started the season well for Rockingham with 18 points and eight rebounds with Callum Beard contributing 17 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots. Cirkook Riak also had 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Gavin Field is already a 250-game championship winning legend and life member of the Cockburn Cougars, but he's showing no signs of slowing down coming into the NBL1 West competition. He put up 30 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals on Friday night.

Nic Pozoglou added 10 points and 12 rebounds for the Cougars, Josh Hunt nine points and three boards, and Matt Clifford seven points, five boards, three assists and two blocked shots.

 

WARWICK SENATORS 86 lost to PERTH REDBACKS 52

The Warwick Senators proved the dominant team of the West Coast Classic, they broke through for a championship and now they appear as though they are going to be hard to stop in the NBL1 West in 2021.

The Senators had long been a talented and almost contending team in the SBL, but everything came together for them in the West Coast Classic in 2020.

With coach Mike Ellis leading the way with a team led by his son Cody and featuring a tremendous blend of emerging and prime aged talents, everything came together for them in fine style and there's no reason to suggest that can't happen again for them now in the NBL1 West in 2021. 

Certainly based on what they showed on Friday night at Warwick Stadium, this is a Senators team already hitting the floor running to start this new season.

It wasn’t quite the full strength Redbacks teams we will be expecting to see later in the season with the absence at present of Marshall Nelson, Caleb White, Ethan Vlahov and even the league's all-time assists leader Joel Wagner.

So the opposition the Senators faced on Friday night might not quite what they will face when they play the Redbacks as 2021 unfolds, but all they could do was play what was in front of them and they produced an impressive and dominant performance.

The Redbacks had fought hard to keep pace with the Senators in the opening quarter with the Senators heading into quarter-time leading 27-21.

Back-to-back triples for Warwick just before half-time from Caleb Davis and Jay Thwaites saw their lead stretch out to 15 and the home team was still up 44-31 by the half-time break.

Davis then nailed another three ball for the Senators to open the second half and the lead continued to grow and was out to 68-43 by three quarter-time on another three ball from Thwaites.

It was a relatively quiet fourth quarter from there with Warwick adding 18 points and Perth just the nine with the Senators beating the Redbacks 86-52.

The number of contributors the Senators had last year was a big part of their success, and it was a similar story in the big win on Friday night over the Redbacks.

Caleb Davis ended up top-scoring with 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists with Justin King adding 17 points and 14 rebounds.

Cody Ellis put up 15 points, four rebounds and two assists with Corban Wroe contributing 12 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals, and Jay Thwaites 10 points including 2/3 on three-point shooting.

It was a tough start to the new season for the Redbacks but Louis Timms showed some exciting signs of what he's going to be able to bring this season with his size, experience and all-round abilities.

In his first game for the Redbacks, he finished with 14 points and five rebounds.

Tevin Jackson also looks in good shape and form to open the new season and had 11 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals for the Redbacks on Friday night.

Kyden Edman contributed eight points and five rebounds, Zac Gattorna six points and eight boards, Derek Igbenoba five points and five rebounds, Lachlan Bertram four points and five boards, Matt Giorgi two points and two assists, and Jordan Herbert two points and four rebounds.