Round 17 Spotlight | Magic, Redbacks turn focus to huge Saturday

The Mandurah Magic turned around a horror opening five quarters to their Round 17 in the NBL1 West Men's Division to impressively beat the Perth Redbacks on Friday night with both teams needing to back up strongly now on Saturday.

The Redbacks and Magic locked horns at Belmont Oasis on Friday night in a game that had the potential to decide just how high up both teams could finish heading into the playoffs, and tell us plenty about them both as well.

Mandurah came into the game after a shock loss to the Perry Lakes Hawks at Bendat Basketball Centre on Tuesday, not so much because it was a loss but the nature of it with the eventual 24-point margin.

That left them unlikely to be able to break into the top four at 12-7 but the Redbacks still had their sights set on a top four finish at 12-6 with four games of their season remaining and three of them at home at Belmont Oasis.

The Redbacks then came out on fire against the Magic who didn’t respond to Tuesday night anywhere near as quickly as coach Aaron Trahair anticipated.

Perth blew Mandurah away in the opening quarter even in the absence of key starters Joel Wagner and Zac Gattorna.

Marshall Nelson got the Redbacks rolling with a three before Tevin Jackson and Louis Timms joined in on the fun and all of a sudden the home team was leading 17-6.

That became 19-6 with a bucket to Derek Igbenoba and 21-6 with another basket to Timms, and 23-6 with two free-throws to Jackson. David Swaby hit the floor and made it 25-6 with Redbacks off to the perfect start and the Magic the worst imaginable coming off Tuesday's loss.

Perth still led 27-12 by quarter-time but the Magic managed to stem the tide and slowly work their way back into the contest during the second quarter to cut the Redbacks lead to 48-39 by the major break.

However, the Magic had built up their confidence and the Redbacks went away from what worked so well in the opening quarter with the game going under a dramatic transformation.

The Magic were able to turn the game on its head outscoring the home team 54 points to 32 in the second half to score the crucial 93-80 victory.

It was a confidence-boosting win for the Magic after such a slow start away from home and Akau Deng was at the centre of it. He finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds but had zero points and one rebound at the half.

Jerami Grace ended up top-scoring with 27 points, six rebounds and six assists while Scott Machado delivered 23 points, five rebounds and five assists even though being guarded by Tevin Jackson made it a long night for the NBL superstar.

Brian Carlwell also had nine points, four rebounds and two blocks for the Magic, and import guard Fred Williams eight points and three boards.

Magic coach Aaron Trahair was at least happy his team responded how they did in the second half on Friday night, but he wouldn’t have minded they got rolling this week a bit earlier.

"Obviously the second half was very good and we finally stuck to the scout and did what we were trying to do in the first half truth be told," Trahair said. 

"It's a bit of a good and bad feeling because the second half was outstanding, but the first quarter in particular was disappointing especially coming off the back of Tuesday night against the Hawks where we started off really poorly as well. 

"We weren’t able to get ourselves back into that one and I thought I might have seen a bit better start as a result tonight, but if you look at the positives we were able to bounce back and have that ability to turn things around within a game which is always a nice feeling to have. 

"But for the sake of the blood pressure and not adding to the grey beard, it would be nice to get off to a better start."

While Machado has attracted so much attention to the Magic this season and rightfully so, Trahair has been impressed with the way the rest of the group have embraced playing alongside such a superstar.

He was especially happy with what Grace and Deng produced on Friday night.

"Jerami was fantastic and was pretty solid for us all night, and he is getting that really good balance of getting to the ring which opens up his perimeter shot which he's very good at," Trahair said.

"I think that as the season's gone on he has improved in that space of getting a better balance so that even if he's not shooting those perimeter shots well, he is still finding ways to get to the line and keep the scoreboard ticking over. 

"He nearly single-handedly got two or three of their players in foul trouble early in that game which was key to the win in the end too. And I thought the second half as Akau was as good as I've ever seen him play. 

"In the second half alone he had 11 points and 13 rebounds and that's pretty impressive in anyone's language. I guess from a selfish point of view it would be nice to know how to find the trigger to get him going like that all the time because he is a bit of an enigma. 

"He is a big, athletic kid who can be outstanding like we saw tonight, he can go missing a little bit at times as well. He is a real barometer for us and when he's up and about like that then it lifts the whole vibe of the group. I'm happy for him as well."

Marshall Nelson had a frustrating night the longer it went but still put up 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists for the Redbacks while hitting 4/9 from three-point range.

Louis Timms added 19 points and 15 rebounds in a hard working performance for the home side while David Swaby ended up with 12 points and five rebounds, Tevin Jackson 12 points, eight assists, six steals and three boards.

Redbacks coach CJ Jackson was impressed with the unselfish way his group started the game without Wagner and Gattorna, but grew more and more frustrated as he saw that game plan unravel.

"I think to be honest we kind of did it to ourselves. I know that Mandurah play hard and they pinned us back, and got back into the game but I think we did a lot of the damage to ourselves because we didn’t play the disciplined style of ball that we did in the first half," Jackson said. 

"We played disciplined, we moved the ball around and we did all the little things, we made extra passes and then all of a sudden we were settling for one pass and a shot all the time in the second half. In this league right now, that's not going to get it done and whoever executes best is going to win the games.

"I think that they press to try to do it themselves and don't understand the magnitude of the possession or the game. We still need to get it done together and I just spoke to them about it in the locker room, and told them there's no way they are going to get it done themselves. 

"The league is too good and there are too many good players in the league, and that means it will make it harder to make it happen if we don't follow what we are going out there and needing to execute."

It has been quite the journey in Trahair's coaching career to now get Mandurah into a position where they are going to play finals in 2021.

There have been seasons where he had to question whether it was possible, but he stuck at it and now the club has put together a group for the NBL1 West that was on track to contend for the finals even before the arrival of Machado, and now certainly is a title threat with him part of it.

They will need to make their charge from the bottom part of the eight but with Machado, Grace and the young Riley Parker in the back court, Brian Carlwell, Akau Deng and Xavier Shaw up front, and plenty more role players including import Fred Williams, it's an exciting group.

It has been quite the rocky road for the Magic to get to the point where their men's team is preparing to play in a finals series. 

Trahair is thankful the club has been able to attract so much excitement with the signings of the likes of Machado and Luke Travers from the NBL, and hopes it helps the entire NBL1 West benefit in the long run.

"I joke around with people that I'm not as bad a coach as my win-loss record in Mandurah suggests, but it's great for the club first and foremost, and the younger guys to get the opportunity to play with Scott and other good players we've brought in, and now to get a taste of playing finals," Trahair said. 

"We have been trying to just change perception people have of the club and even at the start of the season we changed that a little bit by recruiting some players, and now with the addition of Scott we have had more publicity in a positive way than we've probably ever had. 

"We were hoping to bring in Luke too but he's just got a bit of a niggling knee, but that create more hype and it's been fantastic for the league. 

"For the whole time I've been involved, I've never seen everyone having to pre-purchase tickets to go and that's happening wherever we travel to play this year. 

"Hopefully moving forward that helps us attract players of that calibre to come play over here who might have never considered it previously. I really hope that other clubs benefit from this going forward."

More immediately, though, the focus for Trahair and the Magic is Saturday night's home game against the Rockingham Flames as they try and finish as high up on the table as they can.

"Obviously we are going to play finals this year which hasn’t happened for quite some time down in Mandurah so that's exciting first and foremost. We want to try and finish as high as we can so hopefully tomorrow is crucial in trying to move up the ladder and it's another tough game," Trahair said. 

"I consider Rockingham one of the top teams with everyone available because they are big and physical, and obviously well coached by Ryan. They have been sitting at home, kicking back and relaxing while we've played two games this week but being at home, I'd like to think we will be up for the challenge."

As for the Redbacks, they now head to the Lakeside Recreation Centre on Saturday night to take on a Lightning team that appears bound for the top two even though Jarrad Prue, Jay Bowie, Kyle Armour and Corey Shervill have been absent lately.

Jackson hopes the Redbacks see their best on Saturday night.

"First of all, I would prefer if we could see their whole team because then it's a question of how good we are against the guys who are out there," Jackson said. 

"I do feel like we need to play a little bit more disciplined tomorrow for four quarters, not just for one and two. Four quarters of discipline will help. Wags won't play and I'm not sure about Zac because he did pull up pretty crook in the bed. 

"We did miss that piece tonight but I do feel that the players who were out there gave it a really good crack, and played hard. We just didn’t play disciplined enough to beat the team that set out the challenge for us."

NBL1 WEST MEN'S DIVISION 2021
ROUND 17

TUESDAY
Perry Lakes Hawks 92 defeated Mandurah Magic 68

THURSDAY
East Perth Eagles 74 lost to Warwick Senators 87
Joondalup Wolves 84 defeated Cockburn Cougars 83

FRIDAY
Perth Redbacks 80 lost to Mandurah Magic 93
Perry Lakes Hawks 113 defeated Kalamunda Eastern Suns 65
Willetton Tigers 102 defeated South West Slammers 74

SATURDAY
Mandurah Magic v Rockingham Flames – Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre 7pm
Geraldton Buccaneers v Cockburn Cougars – Active West Stadium 7pm
South West Slammers v Joondalup Wolves – Eaton Recreation Centre 7pm
Warwick Senators v Willetton Tigers – Warwick Stadium 7pm
Lakeside Lightning v Perth Redbacks – Lakeside Recreation Centre 7pm
Goldfields Giants v East Perth Eagles – Niels Hansen Basketball Stadium 7pm

SUNDAY
Geraldton Buccaneers v Kalamunda Eastern Suns – Active West Stadium 12pm