NBL1 West Recap | Sunday Men's Round 4

The Rockingham Flames made the trip south on Sunday evening and came back with a 91-52 victory from the Eaton Recreation Centre against the South West Slammers.

Action in the 2021 NBL1 West season recommenced this weekend after two weeks of an enforced break firstly thanks to the COVID-19 lockdown and then last week with the restrictions still in place.

But Saturday night saw Round 4 get underway and the NBL1 West get back underway with all 14 teams from the Men's Division in action.

The seven matches that took place provided plenty of exciting action across the board with the Joondalup Wolves defeating the Kalamunda Eastern Suns 84-61 at HBF Arena to keep their undefeated start going.

The Perry Lakes Hawks did the same beating the winless Perth Redbacks 96-51 at Belmont Oasis while the Mandurah Magic got their second win beating the Cockburn Cougars 88-81 at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre.

The Goldfields Giants hosted the Geraldton Buccaneers in Kalgoorlie and spoiled the 400-game celebrations of Aaron Ralph with the 103-69 victory.

The Warwick Senators improved to 3-0 on the season with the 96-60 win against the South West Slammers at Warwick Stadium with the Lakeside Lightning also winning big 121-60 against the East Perth Eagles at Lakeside Recreation Centre.

The Willetton Tigers improved to 2-0 as well with an 83-65 victory against the Rockingham Flames at Mike Barnett Sports Complex.

That all led into the round concluding on Sunday evening at Eaton Recreation Centre and it was the Rockingham Flames coming away with the 91-52 victory against the now 0-4 South West Slammers under the coaching of the legendary Mark Worthington.

NBL1 WEST – 2021 MEN'S SEASON
ROUND 4 – SUNDAY

SOUTH WEST SLAMMERS 52 lost to ROCKINGHAM FLAMES 91

The final match of Round 4 in the NBL1 West Men's Division took place on Sunday evening with the South West Slammers playing host to the Rockingham Flames.

The Slammers started their NBL1 West season back in the opening round with two games, firstly losing on the road to the Mandurah Magic by 22 points before a 36-point defeat on their home floor against the Warwick Senators 24 hours later.

Meanwhile, Rockingham had just the one game in the opening round and that saw the Flames record an 86-72 victory away to the Rockingham Flames.

Then both teams started Round 4 with a game on Saturday evening which saw the Slammers again lose to the Senators by 36 points, this time at Warwick Stadium while the Flames suffered an 18-point defeat at home to the Willetton Tigers in Ryan Godfrey's 250th appearance.

But coming out of the blocks on Sunday down in Eaton, Rockingham started well against the Slammers and were never really headed from there.

The Flames scored 26 points to 16 in the opening quarter and then by half-time had stretched their advantage to a 45-31 lead on the road.

Rockingham then put the game away in the second half with another 20 points to 11 in the third quarter, and 26 to 10 in the fourth to end up winning 91-52.

The 39-point win improves the Flames to a 2-1 record on the season under Perth Lynx coach Ryan Petrik, and on Sunday evening their pressure was good to force the Slammers into 24 turnovers while winning the rebound count 56 to 47.

Cirkook Makuac Riak backed up a good performance the night before for Rockingham by delivering another 20 points and 11 rebounds on the back of going 10/11 at the free-throw line.

Travis Durnin added 17 points and eight rebounds for the Flames, Callum Beard 11 points and seven boards, Ryan Godfrey eight points, five rebounds and five assists, Atem Bior eight points, eight boards and four steals, and Brendan Redhead seven points and five assists.

It's a Rockingham team that will look to have Tom Jervis and Greg Hire at some stage throughout the season, along with the possibility of a couple of imports.

It was tough going again for the youthful Slammers, but you certainly couldn’t question their effort or endeavour.

Cody Hill was impressive with 18 points while Rhys Barrett added 10 points, Mitch Keller six points and 13 rebounds, and James Wilson six points.