NBL1 West Recap | Sunday Men's Round 8

The Joondalup Wolves returned to winning form on Sunday afternoon after a couple of tough losses while the Kalamunda Eastern Suns were also able to breakthrough for their first win of the NBL1 West Men's Division season.

There were two games on Sunday to close out Round 8 in the NBL1 West Men's Division with both the Goldfields Giants and Geraldton Buccaneers on the road for double-header weekends, but they came up short against the Joondalup Wolves and Kalamunda Eastern Suns respectively.

Round 8 got underway with three matches on Friday night which saw the Lakeside Lightning beat the South West Slammers 96-65, the East Perth Eagles defeat the Cockburn Cougars 69-63 and the Rockingham Flames win big 95-69 over the Mandurah Magic.

That led into a big night of action on Saturday with the five matches taking place including the Geraldton Buccaneers beginning their weekend on the road with the 86-71 victory against the Mandurah Magic.

The Perth Redbacks also scored a win on the road beating the Cockburn Cougars 89-72 while the Warwick Senators bounced back from their first loss of the season to defeat the Perry Lakes Hawks 87-77.

The Willetton Tigers then kept the Kalamunda Eastern Suns winless with the 72-65 victory while the Lakeside Lightning kept their hot form going with the 118-90 win against the Goldfields Giants.

That led into the two more matches on Sunday afternoon to close out the round and it saw the Joondalup Wolves defeat the Goldfields Giants 82-71 at HBF Arena.

The Kalamunda Eastern Suns then recorded their first win of the NBL1 West season by beating the Geraldton Buccaneers 94-74 at Ray Owen Sports Centre.

NBL1 WEST – 2021 MEN'S SEASON
ROUND 8 – SUNDAY 

JOONDALUP WOLVES 82 defeated GOLDFIELDS GIANTS 71

The Joondalup Wolves and Goldfields Giants were both attempting a bounce back victory on Sunday at HBF Arena, but only one of them were going to be able to get what they were after.

It has been a mixed couple of weeks for the Wolfpack including a big loss to the Warwick Senators, win over the Mandurah Magic, loss in Kalgoorlie to the Giants, shock 33-point loss to the East Perth Eagles and then a mauling by 31 points on Tuesday to the Perry Lakes Hawks.

Meanwhile, the Giants have had a mixed run since beating the Wolves at home with a one-point loss to the Willetton Tigers and then a 28-point loss on Saturday night to start this road trip against the Lakeside Lightning.

Both teams weren’t lacking in motivation after some disappointing performances in recent times and on their home floor at HBF Arena it was the Wolfpack who started impressively with 30 points to 19 in the opening quarter.

But the Giants sure were able to turn it around in the second quarter locking in defensively holding Joondalup to just the six points while scoring 18 themselves and that saw Goldfields hold the narrowest of leads at half-time 37-36.

Joondalup was able to pick things back up offensively in the third quarter to score 25 points and they took back the lead by three quarter-time at 61-58.

The Wolves then finished the job in the fourth quarter to end up beating the Giants 82-71. That sees Joondalup improve to a 5-3 record on the season while Goldfields are 3-5.

Jonathan Wade top-scored for the Wolfpack with 23 points and seven rebounds while Rob Huntington was back after missing Tuesday night's game with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Lochlan Cummings also put up 19 points, four rebounds and four assists on the back of knocking down four three-pointers.

Jerome Reid top-scored for Goldfields for the second time this weekend putting up 21 points, 10 rebounds three assists and two steals.

Julian Pesava also had 15 points and eight rebounds for the Giants, Tom Atkinson 13 points and nine boards, Deng Kuany 11 points and six rebounds, and Dion Collins eight points and six boards.

KALAMUNDA EASTERN SUNS 94 defeated GERALDTON BUCCANEERS 74

The Kalamunda Eastern Suns clearly got sick of being the lone winless team in the NBL1 West competition in 2021 and put together their best performance of the season to beat the Geraldton Buccaneers on Sunday.

Both teams had played on Saturday night with the Buccs winning impressively in Mandurah by 15 points over the Magic with Mathiang Muo starring with 41 points and eight three-pointers.

The Eastern Suns, meanwhile, fought hard as well on the road to the Willetton Tigers before ending up losing by seven points for their sixth consecutive loss of 2021.

But the Sunday afternoon games with the visiting country team playing their second game of the weekend can always throw up some interesting results, and this game was one of those occasions.

The Suns sensed this could be their chance at the drought breaking victory as well and they started strongly to lead 26-19 by quarter-time against the Buccs.

Mathiang Muo quickly closed that gap single-handedly in the second quarter but it was Kalamunda who still held onto a narrow 45-44 edge at half-time on their home court.

The hot shooting continued for both teams for much of the third quarter and it was the Suns heading into three quarter-time with a 67-62 lead.

It was then all Kalamunda in the fourth quarter as they played their best basketball of the season to secure their first victory with 27 points to 12 and to end up beating the Giants 94-74.

There were plenty of strong contributors in the breakthrough win for the Eastern Suns with Brendan Dinardo finishing with 14 points, four assists and three rebounds, and Dyson Lowe 14 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Carl Aylett also had 13 points and three assists for Kalamunda, Ryan Blanchett 10 points, six rebounds and three assists, Jermaine Malie nine points and seven boards, and Chuatwech Reath eight points and three rebounds.

Mathiang Muo backed up his 41-point effort for Geraldton on Saturday night with another 35 points on Sunday to go with seven rebounds and four assists while shooting 14/23 from the field and 4/8 from three-point territory.

Aaron Ralph also had 16 points and eight rebounds for the Buccaneers, and Dylan Myers six points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals.