NBL1 West Recap | Thursday Men's Round 15

A three-point shooting outburst from local big man Cooper Lowe inspired a Kalamunda Eastern Suns comeback on Thursday night in the NBL1 West Men's Division, but ultimately the Lakeside Lightning pulled away for the important road win.

It was a big task for the Eastern Suns up against the Lightning even at Ray Owen Sports Centre on Thursday night to open Round 15 in the NBL1 West Men's Division, and for much of the first half Lakeside looked likely of blowing the game open.

That was despite an impressive debut for Kalamunda from new guard Joe Cook-Green but Cooper Lowe caught fire in the second half for the Eastern Suns to turn the heat right back on a Lakeside team missing Jarrad Prue, Jay Bowie and Corey Shervill.

However, 35 points from Rowan Mackenzie ultimately was a match-winning performance for Lakeside as they took out the 105-90 victory.

That was all just the appetiser to the rest of Round 15 in the NBL1 West Men's Division that continues on Friday night with the Perry Lakes Hawks hosting the Willetton Tigers at Bendat Basketball Centre.

The Lakeside Lightning back up at home to the Joondalup Wolves while the Rockingham Flames are hosting the South West Slammers at Mike Barnett Sports Complex, and the Cockburn Cougars take on the Warwick Senators at Warwick Stadium.

The Geraldton Buccaneers are then back home to host the Perth Redbacks on Saturday night with the Joondalup Wolves also hosting the Perry Lakes Hawks while the Warwick Senators face the East Perth Eagles at Warwick Stadium.

The Willetton Tigers are also playing the Cockburn Cougars at Willetton Basketball Stadium, the South West Slammers host the Goldfields Giants and the Kalamunda Eastern Suns are at home to the Mandurah Magic.

The last game of the round then takes place on Sunday afternoon between the Mandurah Magic and Goldfields Giants at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre.

NBL1 WEST – 2021 MEN'S SEASON
ROUND 15 – THURSDAY NIGHT

KALAMUNDA EASTERN SUNS 90 lost to LAKESIDE LIGHTNING 105

The frustrations of a second straight season ravaged by COVID-19 has Kalamunda Eastern Suns coach Mark Utley questioning his future in the league but he can't question his team's heart after a strong showing against the title-contending Lakeside Lightning.

The Eastern Suns hosted the Lightning to open Round 15 in the NBL1 West on Thursday night and they had the job ahead of them without import Chris Johnson but the debut of New Zealander Joe Cook-Green gave them a significant boost.

He scored Kalamunda's first seven points of the game in just over a minute to make an immediate impact, but Lakeside is still fighting for top spot and even if they were missing Jarrad Prue, Jay Bowie and Corey Shervill, they were up 30-24 by the end of one.

The Lightning extended their lead further in the second quarter to head into half-time leading 50-37, and Ben Lee and Rowan Mackenzie combined to put Lakeside up 55-37.

With that 18-point deficit, it was now or never for the Eastern Suns and suddenly Brendan Dinardo hit a couple of threes, then Dyson Lowe also hit a triple before Jermaine Malie, Ryan Blanchett and Cook-Green scored to bring it back to a single-figure ball game.

It was then Cooper Lowe time for the Eastern Suns. He hit his first three to make it a nine-point game, then another to make it seven and his third in the matter of minutes kept the Suns with nine, and it was back to six by three quarter-time.

Malie then had the Suns within four and then a three ball from Dinardo to open the fourth quarter had Kalamunda within a point and their home fans were rocking. A second triple from Dyson Lowe then briefly had the Eastern Suns in front, but then the Lightning answered.

Rowan Mackenzie and Ben Lee hit three balls in response, then Mackenzie hit a couple of more shots, Lee nailed another triple and while the Suns never threw in the towel, Lakeside ended up winning 105-90.

Lakeside improved to 13-3 with the win on the back of 35 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals from Rowan Mackenzie on the back of shooting 15/23 from the field.

Ben Lee added 22 points, four rebounds and three assists with 5/8 from downtown for the Lightning while Kyle Armour had 14 points and nine assists in a fascinating battle with new arrival Joe Cook-Green.

Jack Isenbarger also had 12 points and five assists, and Nick Palleschi seven points, three rebounds and two assists.

It might have been a loss for the Eastern Suns and the absence of import Chris Johnson didn’t help, but Joe Cook-Green was outstanding with 21 points, six assists and five rebounds only a day after arriving in the country.

Brendan Dinardo added 18 points on 4/8 shooting from three, Cooper Lowe 16 points on 3/3 shooting from deep and Jermaine Malie 15 points, six boards and five assists.

Kalamunda coach Mark Utley couldn’t fault his team's effort.

"We were really pleased with our effort. We knew that they had a few outs but they always have people to replace them and I highly rate Rowan Mackenzie and Josh Davey in terms of replacing Prue and working on the glass. It was really good that our guys fought that out and made sure they did the job to keep us in it," Utley said.

"Cooper has actually stepped up in other games this season too and he was our player of the game last week against East Perth, we just didn’t have the cattle to stop Lee Roberts. 

"We wish we'd had Chris Johnson for that game because that was his match up, but Cooper did what he could and was hitting threes and playing the same way. That style has been what we've wanted all year to draw the big guys out and Cooper has embraced that really well."

Utley had high hopes of what Cook-Green could deliver having just come out of playing at the Canterbury Rams in the NZNBL and after seeing him for 24 hours, he has no doubt he deserves an NBL opportunity based on his all-round capabilities.

"You could just tell that Lakeside realised early that Joe was a baller and they adjusted their defence on him," Utley said.

"We got him because we just needed another creator for Brendan Dinardo, and we saw Brendan and Jermaine benefit from having him, and then so did Cooper. As we learn to play with him in the back end of the season we'll beat some teams hopefully.

"I think why he came over was to be under the nose of the Wildcats and he knows a few of the people there. It's a real advantage for him to keep playing and to do it under the NBL1 spotlight to keep him in form and hopefully get him noticed. 

"He played under Mick Downer at Canterbury so we know he's fundamentally sound and for a development spot in the NBL, he'd be in the mix. He has great offensive skills, but his defence is really strong too and he prides himself on that.

"We'll now use him against Scott Machado and Jerami Grace on Saturday night but it will be a great experience for our others guards too so Jermaine, Brendan and Carl Aylett will look forward to that challenge."

Utley has been frustrated and understandably so with the way COVID-19 has ravaged the last two seasons and played havoc to whatever he had impressively built on their way to the playoffs at the Eastern Suns in 2019.

While he can see signs that the club overall is on the right path, the frustrations of the last two years and no guarantees that last year will be any different has him question whether or not he will remain involved in the league still in 2021.

And following a playing career of 289 games between 1990-2006 and now being head coach since 2006 at roles with Rockingham, Mandurah and now Kalamunda, it's not an easy call when he's weighing up whether to continue to be involved or not.

"We made playoffs in that first season and we were happy with what we were building and there was no secret I find good imports to fit into that team situation and we had Josh Braun and Javion Blake," Utley said. 

"But apart from Corey and Chris, every single player at this club is under 25 years of age and since I've been here we have our 14s, 16s and 18s playing in championship division WABL for the first time ever, and our 20s under Ben are in the top four. It has been a big build but it's just the frustration of how long it has taken because of COVID. If we had our usual two imports, we'd be building and peaking at this time but it's just not the case.

"It's been frustrating, really really frustrating. It started on the first game of the year when we were going to play Geraldton with them down on players and then the cyclone happened. We then had COVID breaks and we could have won some of those games that we had cancelled so our season could be very different. 

"We've now got Chris in COVID isolation and that is costing us so it's just been really frustrating. After I was hoping to get to 600 games as a player and head coach, but I don’t know if I'll get to know that mark now because of how frustrating another COVID year has been. 

"There's nothing normal about these seasons and we've had different line-ups every single week and that's been the frustrating part. This league has been a huge part of my life. I started in 1990 but there's a lot of things, it's the travel with eight and-a-half hours of driving per week combined with probably over 20 hours of work as a coach. It has been a bit part of my life to do it but I'll sit back and see where I'm at and what path I want to go for the future."