NBL1 West Recap | Sunday Round 8

The Willetton Tigers and Cockburn Cougars scored a pair of impressive wins each in Sunday's NBL1 West action against the Goldfields Giants and East Perth Eagles.

Round 8 in the NBL1 West wrapped up on Sunday afternoon with the Willetton women beating Goldfields 92-49 before the Tigers men defeated the Giants 94-86.

The Cougars women then defeated the Eagles 94-60 before Cockburn's men defeated East Perth 116-86.

NBL1 WEST RECAP | FRIDAY ROUND 8

NBL1 WEST RECAP | SATURDAY ROUND 8

WOMEN

Tigers take care of business against Giants

The Willetton Tigers got back to winning in emphatic style against the youthful and shorthanded Goldfields Giants with the 92-49 victory at home on Sunday.

Willetton lost to the Mandurah Magic on the road on Saturday night and were back at Willetton Basketball Stadium on Sunday looking to hit back against a Giants team that has been ravaged by injury and player unavailability.

Key trio Amanda Wayment, Olivia Berry and Rachel Kehoe continue to be out for Goldfields with the emerging Lawrin Tipene also unavailable this weekend meaning the job was ahead of the Giants against the Tigers.

Goldfields had lost to the East Perth Eagles by 26 points the night before to start their road trip and the Giants actually started well to lead 19-16 by quarter-time.

They couldn’t keep it going, though, with Willetton taking over from there including 32 points to 16 in the second period to lead 48-35 by half-time.

The Tigers dominated the second half with 44 points to 14 including holding the Giants to four points in the final term to score the 43-point win.

The victory improves Willetton to 7-3 on the season while Goldfields is now 2-8 having lost three straight.

Jess Jakens is fitting in swimmingly with the Tigers after previously playing 233 games at the Perth Redbacks and she top-scored on Sunday with 22 points, eight rebounds and two assists on 10/15 shooting.

Alex Sharp added 15 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocks, Sophie Doran 16 points, eight assists, six rebounds and four steals, and Melisa Brcaninovic seven points, nine boards, three assists and two blocks.

Willetton also unveiled new signing Amy Jacobs who had six points, four rebounds and two assists on her return from college at LaSalle University with her electing to join the Tigers rather than go back to Lakeside.

Kiriana Hawaikirangi fought hard for the Giants with 24 points, six steals, five rebounds and four assists on 4/9 three-point shooting.

Aimee Borchet added 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Regan Turnour-McCarty seven points, 11 boards, four assists and two steals despite 1/15 three-point shooting and going 3/25 from the field.

Cougars stay perfect with home win over Eagles

The Cockburn Cougars overcame a slow start to dominate the East Perth Eagles the rest of the way to keep their perfect start to the NBL1 West going with the 94-60 win.

Both Cockburn and East Perth came into the game with wins from earlier in the weekend with the Cougars staying unbeaten with the win over the Redbacks on Friday while the Eagles beat the Giants at home on Saturday.

East Perth then came into Sunday's clash at Wally Hagan Stadium and started well with Sarah Allen scoring the game's first four points.

Madison Torresin hit a three soon after to put the Eagles up 7-2 and they were still on top 13-7 when Allen hit a three-pointer with just over three minutes gone.

However, from there Cockburn took charge of the contest and by quarter-time were leading 25-24 before the Cougars put up 26 points to seven in the second quarter to grab the advantage and be up 49-31 at the half.

Cockburn put up 24 points to eight in the final period to end up winning by 34 to improve to a perfect 8-0 record while East Perth slips to 4-7 after splitting their weekend double.

The Cougars ended up shooting 46.4 per cent from the field despite hitting just 5/28 from downtown to East Perth's 29.4 per cent field goal shooting and 7/28 from three-point territory.

Cockburn dominated the glass with 66 rebounds to 34 to end up taking 16 extra field goals while Jessie Edwards dominated with 22 points, 19 rebounds and two assists with 8/11 shooting.

Sarah Mortensen also had 22 points, 11 rebounds and four assists, Harriet Ford 14 points and seven boards, Steph Gorman 12 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three steals, and Jewel Williams 14 points.

Sarah Allen had an equal season-high 14 points for East Perth with Sylwia Bujnak contributing 14 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals while Maddie Allen added 11 points, five rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots.

MEN

Gak lifts Tigers to hard fought win over Giants

Two in-form teams delivered an enthralling Sunday afternoon contest at Willetton Basketball Stadium with the Willetton Tigers prevailing 94-86 against the Goldfields Giants.

Both teams were coming off Saturday night wins with the Tigers winning a nail-biter away to the Mandurah Magic while the Giants began their double on the road beating the East Perth Eagles.

That set the stage for an enthralling contest and it delivered even though the Giants were up against it much of the afternoon.

Willetton led by as much as eight in the first quarter and by three at quarter-time before 21 points to eight in the second period to go into the half-time break on top 46-30.

The Tigers pushed their lead out to 17 points in the third quarter and were still up 15 in the fourth, but the Giants weren’t about to jump on the bus without throwing everything at a fightback.

Just as it was slipping away with Willetton up 15 with six minutes to play, back-to-back threes from Lafonzo Smith and Jerome Reid made it a single figure margin again before it was back to five shortly after thanks to Michael Dupree.

Suddenly in the final minute Mayo Malek was able to force the turnover on Darnell Hoskins Jr and throw down the dunk to make it a three-point game.

Smith made one free-throw to bring the deficit back to two after captain Reid forced Willetton into another turnover.

In the end, a clever floater from 254-game captain Andrew Black, a couple of rash shots from the Giants and then two free-throws from Damien Scott saw Willetton claim the eight-point win.

Gorjok Gak produced a huge performance for Willetton with the South East Melbourne Phoenix signing putting up 18 points, 16 rebounds and six assists.

Darnell Hoskins Jr added 17 points with 4/8 three-point shooting while Michael Vigor put up 15 points, four boards and four assists, Damien Scott 15 points, six rebounds and four assists, Andrew Black 11 points and three boards, and Travis Fee 11 points, four rebounds and two assists.

Mark Worthington also had seven points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals.

Michael Dupree finished with 24 points, five assists, five steals and three rebounds for Goldfields, Lafonzo Smith 20 points, five boards, three steals and two assists, and Mayo Malek 14 points, five rebounds and three steals. 

Damon Ballantyne also had 11 points and five rebounds, and Jerome Reid eight points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals.

 

Alexander, Benning dominate for Cougars over Eagles

The Cockburn Cougars season is beginning to pick up some steam after Sunday's 116-86 emphatic home victory against the East Perth Eagles.

Both the Cougars and Eagles had lost earlier in the weekend with Cockburn going down to the Perth Redbacks on Friday and East Perth at home to the Goldfields Giants on Saturday.

That meant both were desperate for a win to stay in touch with the top eight and it didn’t take long for the Cougars to take charge at Wally Hagan Stadium.

East Perth had no answers for Cockburn's import duo Courtney Alexander II and Taj Benning with the Cougars already leading 32-19 by quarter-time.

Cockburn's lead grew to 16 points in the second quarter and then blew out to 24 in the third and 33 in the fourth before settling at 30 at the final buzzer.

The victory improves the Cougars to a 3-7 record on the season with the signs encouraging moving forward while the Eagles continue to struggle now slipping to 1-10 despite having an enormously talented roster even with Jerami Grace currently sidelined.

Alexander ended up with another 28 points, 12 rebounds and three assists for Cockburn on 12/16 shooting with Benning terrific too with 24 points and four assists on 9/11 shooting.

Josh Hunt also had 16 points, three rebounds and three assists with Luke Phillips contributing 15 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and two blocks, Gavin Field 15 points, seven assists and five boards, Keegan Phillips 10 points, six rebounds and three assists, and Kieran Berry eight points and five assists.

Lee Roberts put up 24 points and 13 rebounds for East Perth with Taylor Young contributing 19 points, eight boards and four assists, and Sebit Reath 14 points and six rebounds.