ONLY four games separated the top four Men's SBL teams at the end of the regular season and they now meet in the semi finals with a Grand Final berth at stake as the Wolves face the Tigers, and Buccaneers take on the Cougars.

The Cockburn Cougars lost just four times during the regular season, the Joondalup Wolves five, Willetton Tigers eight and Geraldton Buccaneers eight to set up two fascinating semi-final battles that saw both match ups split their meetings during the regular season.

Both Game 1 matches take place this Saturday night starting with the S&K Electrical Geraldton Buccaneers facing the Lapa Brazilian Cockburn Cougars at Active West Stadium, and then the Merriwa Tavern & Bistro Joondalup City Wolves play the Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers at Joondalup Basketball Stadium.

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The semi finals get underway on Saturday night in Geraldton as the fourth seeded Buccs host the minor premier Cougars at Active West Stadium.

Given the travel involved, the Buccs will host Game 1 before the series heads to Cockburn next week for Game 2 on Saturday night and then potentially the deciding Game 3 on Sunday.

It was the same set up for the Buccaneers in the quarter finals which saw them beat the Rockingham Flames in a remarkable come from behind win on the road before then winning at home last Saturday night 107-101.

The Buccs are now attempting to make their first Grand Final since losing to the East Perth Eagles in 2014 and trying to win just their second SBL championship.

Meanwhile, the Cougars had an outstanding regular season to claim top spot and then were in control for three and-a-half quarters of Game 1 against the Perry Lakes Hawks. But then captain Gavin Field's season was ended with an elbow injury and the Cougars just held on.

Perry Lakes won at home last Friday to force the decider before Cockburn won at home last Saturday 130-115 to advance to the semi finals and now attempt to make a Grand Final for the first time since claiming the 2012 championship.

The teams met twice during the regular season with the Cougars winning at home by 15 points in Week 4 before the Buccs also won on their home floor by three in Week 9.

The Buccs have a strong line-up featuring veterans Mat Wundenberg, Carter Cook, Aaron Ralph and Luke Wrensted, and then exciting trio Jackson Hussey, Maurice Barrow and Matthew Adekponya.

The Cougars might be without Field but do have two outstanding imports Marcus Goode and Najee Lane ably supported by veterans Sheldon McIntyre, Dan Thomas and Rhett Della, and an emerging brigade led by Julian Pesava.

Cougars coach Matt Parsons is now excited for his team to experience a playoff game in a loud and vocal environment in front of a jam packed Buccs crowd on Saturday night.

"Here's the thing, you go to Geraldton for a semi-final and you know the whole town is going to be there," Parsons said.

"I'm backing 2000 people to be squeezed into that stadium and it's going to be hostile, but it's a good opportunity for us to experience that environment. It's not often you get to play in those sort of situations and we need to be focused for that. It's an exciting challenge on its own."

In that environment, though, and against an outstanding team, Parsons knows that his team's defence in particular has to be on point for the full 48 minutes.

"What we have to do is execute our defensive sets, we'll have a huge focus on that. If we know where our help is coming from, it makes it that little bit easier to not have our sole focus on any individual," Parsons said.

"We back ourselves to be able to shut down a hot hand so if someone is able to get going we can put our defensive principles into place, but there won't be a huge focus on anybody in particular. We'll look at them all and put something in against it, and see if we can get out on top."

Joondalup and Willetton begin their semi-final series at Joondalup Basketball Stadium with the defending champion Wolves looking to extend their home winning streak to 28.

The Wolfpack's last loss on their home floor came in April last year to the Buccs with Joondalup going on to win its last 13 games of 2015, including three in the playoffs against the Perry Lakes Hawks and Rockingham Flames.

The Wolves then went through winning all 13 games on their home court in 2016 before also beating the Perth Redbacks in the first week of the quarter finals on the way to a 2-0 victory on the back of finishing the regular season in second positon following the 2015 championship.

While that home record for the Wolves might be intimidating, the Tigers have played with no fear all season ending up in third position before overcoming the Stirling Senators in two games in the quarter finals under coach Stephen Black, who replaced father Alan earlier in the campaign.

The teams did battle twice during the season with the Wolves winning at home by 23 points in Week 17 but three weeks prior to that the Tigers pulled off a remarkable come from behind win at Willetton to prevail 104-98 in a heated contest that is sure to not be forgotten now this series.

The Tigers' ability to limit the presence of Kevin Davis in the paint could be crucial to the result and that could see Charles Funches have an increased role but there's plenty of talent and experience on either side to watch out for.

The point guard battle between Joel Questel and Kyle Armour, the contest between Rob Huntington and Nic Cody, and even Seb Salinas, Trian Iliadis and Reece Maxwell opposed to Damien Scott, Jay Bowie and Andrew Black will all be well worth watching.

The Wolves will be without Greg Hire for the series with a finger injury but they did win the 2015 championship without him.

Wolves coach Ben Ettridge is looking for a chance at a third championship as coach before departing to Rio for the Paralympics with the Australian Rollers, but he knows the Wolfpack will certainly have their hands full with the Tigers this series.

"We lost to them when we were in our rotation policy and lost a couple of those games when we didn’t have Kev and Trian, and it was Greg we were working back into the rotation. When we played them the second time up at our place we had a good win, but they are a great team," Ettridge said.

"Kyle Armour's a championship winning point guard, Damien Scott is phenomenal and Bowie could be an MVP, if not an All-Star. They are good and then there Nic Cody and JJ who get out there, and bump and grind. Funches is athletic so they will be really tough, we know that."

MEN'S SEMI-FINAL GAME 1 SBL FIXTURES
SATURDAY
S&K Electrical Geraldton Buccaneers v Lapa Brazilian BBQ Restaurant Cockburn Cougars, Active West Stadium 7.30pm
Merriwa Tavern & Bistro Joondalup City Wolves v Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers, Joondalup Basketball Stadium 8pm

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by June Halliday