NBL1 West Recap | Friday Pink Round

The Cockburn Cougars celebrated the 200th game of captain Kirsty Whitfield with a big win over the South West Slammers before their men followed suit while it was a double for the Perry Lakes Hawks including a 10-block triple-double from Ash Isenbarger against her old Lakeside team.

There were two women's matches in the NBL1 West on Friday night to open Pink Round with Isenbarger brilliant against her former team with the Perry Lakes Hawks beating the Lakeside Lightning 72-44 while the Cockburn Cougars beat the South West Slammers 113-47.

In the men's contests, the Cougars also beat the Slammers 125-87 while the Hawks downed the Lightning 86-79 in overtime.

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Cougars celebrate captain's 200th with Slammers hammering

The Cockburn Cougars remain the lone undefeated team left in the NBL1 West and celebrated the 200th game of captain Kirsty Whitfield in style to beat the South West Slammers 113-47.

The undefeated Cougars were back home at Wally Hagan Stadium on Friday night to host the winless Slammers with the added incentive of celebrating Whitfield playing her 200th game for Cockburn to earn life membership in what is the last season of her career that started in 2008.

WHITFIELD DREAMS OF FAIRYTALE AHEAD OF GAME 200

It was a significant challenge for the Slammers to try to take it up to a Cougars team who handed the Joondalup Wolves their first loss last Saturday night with South West having lost its six games in 2023 by an average of 52 points.

The Cougars showed no signs of complacency with a 35-point to nine opening quarter and that set the tone for the rest of evening.

Cockburn would add another 31 points to 18 in the second quarter, 30 to 12 in the third and 17 to eight in the fourth with the final 66-point margin the biggest of the night.

The win sees the Cougars improve to a perfect 6-0 record while the Slammers slip to 0-7. Cockburn has won six straight now against South West dating back to 2019 while the Slammers have lost 19 in-a-row overall and 60 of their past 61 matches in the league.

The Cougars forced the Slammers into 38 turnovers for the night and with 55 rebounds to 32 including 25 to six at the offensive end, the home team took 44 more field goals for the game.

Jessie Edwards was a dominant force down low for Cockburn with 29 points, seven rebounds and four steals on 13/18 shooting.

Sarah Mortensen added 17 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, Jewel Williams 14 points, three assists and three steals, Amelia Corasaniti nine points, seven rebounds, four steals and two assists, and Steph Gorman eight points, three assists and three steals.

Captain Kirsty Whitfield celebrated her 200th game to earn life membership with eight points, seven assists, three rebounds and two steals including hitting her lone three-point attempt.

While Paris Duffield put up 31 points in her first game of the season for the Slammers last week, she had just three on Friday night on 1/11 shooting with coach Alex Ciabattoni not backing up to play at all.

Bree Chalk and Alexis Donovan did top-score with 11 points each.

Jewel Williams fires from range ?

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Isenbarger's 10-block triple-double lifts Hawks over Lightning

A triple-double featuring 10 blocks from Ash Isenbarger has inspired the Perry Lakes Hawks to the Friday night 72-44 victory against the Lakeside Lightning at Bendat Basketball Centre.

Perry Lakes played host to Lakeside to open Pink Round in the NBL1 and with former Lightning players Isenbarger and Emma Clarke leading the charge along with Lakeside's 2018 championship winning coach Craig Mansfield, the home team proved too strong.

The Hawks outscored the Lightning 16 points to 10 in the first quarter before another 18 to nine in the second saw them head into the half-time interval on top 34-19.

It was more of the same in the second half from Perry Lakes with 38 points to 25 to see the Hawks improve to 6-3 on the season with three straight wins while the Lightning are 3-7.

Ash Isenbarger is in her first season with Perry Lakes having previously played 203 games with the Lightning. She delivered a remarkable triple-double made up of 12 points, 12 rebounds, 10 blocks and including three assists and three steals.

Emma Clarke also returned for the Hawks after representing Australia at the 3x3 World Cup Qualifiers last week and had 17 points, nine rebounds and two assists with Nici Gilday contributing 18 points and five assists, and Maddy Dennis nine points, 13 boards and three blocks.

Laci Hawthorne top-scored for Lakeside with 11 points and nine rebounds with captain Caitie Jones scoring nine points but struggling on 3/14 shooting.

Ash Isenbarger posted an ?????? triple-double in Perry Lakes' win over Lakeside:

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MEN

Alexander stars again in Cougars win over Slammers

The Cockburn Cougars got a much-needed confidence boost after a challenging opening six weeks of the season by beating the South West Slammers 125-87 at Wally Hagan Stadium.

Coming off a top four finish last season, the Cougars had lost six of the first seven matches this season but that did include missed opportunities against the Lakeside Lightning and Joondalup Wolves, and two decent showings against the rampant Rockingham Flames.

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There was exciting signs too in the narrow loss to Joondalup last week in the performance of Courtney Alexander II, and the import big backed it up with a dominant showing against the Slammers.

Cockburn started strongly with 31 points to 23 in the opening quarter and went on with the job from there with another 33 to 20 in the second term to go into the half-time break leading 64-43.

The Cougars went on to outscore South West 61 points to 44 in the second half to and scored the 38-point victory to make it eight wins in succession against the Slammers dating back to 2018.

The win improves the Cougars to 2-6 on the season and it was Alexander who shone with 30 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and two blocks on 13/18 shooting.

The Cougars had another six players in double-figures with Josh Hunt putting up 17 points and five assists, Taj Benning 11 points, three rebounds and three assists, Gavin Field 11 points, three boards and three steals, Luke Phillips 11 points and three rebounds, and Hayden Bell 10 points and four boards.

Keegan Phillips knocked down 3/4 from three-point range for 12 points with Kieran Berry celebrating his 100th game in the league starting again in the absence of Seva Chan and delivering eight points and six assists.

The Slammers are now 1-7 having lost six straight despite Buay Tuach putting up 20 points and six assists, Ben Stevens 15 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, and Manyiel Wugol 14 points, three assists, three steals and two rebounds.

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Hawks cool heads prevail in OT over Lightning

The experienced and cool heads of the Perry Lakes Hawks got their clash with the Lakeside Lightning to overtime on Friday night where they took charge for the 86-79 victory.

The Lightning caught fire in the second half to force their clash with the Hawks to overtime at Bendat Basketball Centre on Friday night.

Perry Lakes had Grand Final MVP Andrew Ferguson back to play meaningful minutes for the first time this season and by forcing three fouls on Lightning centre Daniel Green in the game's first three minutes, the Hawks took charge.

Perry Lakes would lead by as much as 14 points through the opening half and were on top 46-34 at the break, but then with Hayden Brown lighting it up for Lakeside, the visitors got rolling with 26 points to 17 in the third period.

The Lightning kept the momentum going to lead by four points with three minutes to play before former Lakeside star Daniel Alexander landed one from downtown for Perry Lakes to bring the margin back to one.

He soon made a free-throw too and those four points would be the only scores of the last three minutes. 

Ultimately it was yet another masterful defensive play from Hawks games record holder and dual championship captain Ben Purser that sent the game to overtime when he denied Brown the chance to even got off a shot to try for the game winner on the last possession.

Mitch Clarke, Ferguson and Purser then combined for the first eight points in overtime and that set the Hawks on the path for the seven-point win to see them improve to 9-1 on the season while the Lightning slip to 3-7 with a fourth straight loss.

Championship winning point guard Mitch Clarke continues to thrive on his return to Perry Lakes this season and had another 19 points, nine assists and five rebounds.

Ben Purser added 15 points, six assists and four rebounds, Daniel Alexander 14 points, seven boards and four assists, Andrew Ferguson 12 points and seven rebounds, and Matt Leary 10 points and four boards.

Hayden Brown delivered 30 points, three rebounds and three assists for Lakeside with Rowan Mackenzie making his first appearance of the season on return from college with 15 points and seven boards.

Josh Davey also had 11 points and 15 rebounds, and Kyle Armour 11 points and four assists.