Week 7 Men's SBL Preview

WEEK 7 of the Men's SBL will be highlighted by the return of two-time Perth Wildcats NBL championship winner Greg Hire for the Joondalup Wolves against the South West Slammers on Saturday night, but there are nine matches with plenty at stake across the three days.

On top of Hire's return for the Wolves, the Willetton Tigers will also be unveiling their new import in the form of 205cm forward Charles Funches as Stephen Black takes over as coach with his father Alan moving to Malaysia following the 81-point win on ANZAC Day over the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

Week 7 gets underway on Friday night with the Perry Lakes Hawks (4-4) playing the Vorian Agency East Perth Eagles (2-6) and the Print Sync South West Slammers (4-3) taking on the Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers (5-3).

Then on Saturday night, the Perry Lakes Hawks back up their clash with the Eagles by hosting the S & K Electrical Contracting Geraldton Buccaneers (5-3) with the Silver Lake Resources Goldfields Giants (5-4) facing the Mandurah Magic (2-6).

The Lapa Brazilian BBQ Restaurant Cockburn Cougars (7-2) also face the Textile WA Perth Redbacks (2-5), the Merriwa Tavern & Bistro City of Joondalup Wolves (5-1) battle the Print Sync South West Slammers (4-3), the Lakeside Lightning (4-4) host the Bethanie Stirling Senators (5-3) and the Nags Head Tavern Rockingham Flames (5-3) take on the Kalamunda Eastern Suns (0-8).

Finally on Sunday, two teams back up from playing on Saturday night when the Stirling Senators face the Geraldton Buccaneers at Warwick Stadium.

Starting on Friday night, the Hawks take on the Eagles with Perry Lakes having stopped a three-game losing run with a hard fought five-point win at home over the Giants last Sunday.

Their double-header weekend begins on Friday against East Perth and then they host the Buccaneers with the on-fire Maurice Barrow and Matthew Adekponya on Saturday night.

Both games are at Bendat Basketball Centre but coach Charles Nix knows neither win will come easily for the Hawks.

"Life doesn’t get any easier week in week out in this league with another important double header weekend," Nix said.

"East Perth will be full of beans after defeating the Redbacks on the weekend and the Buccs are as usual at the top of the pile so we will need to be locked in to get the results we need. Being a home double is unique so we will want to take advantage of that."

The Senators are another team with a double-header to look forward to in Week 7 starting against the Lightning at Lakeside Recreation Centre on Saturday night before backing up against the Buccaneers at Warwick Stadium on Sunday.

Coach Mike Ellis is looking for a measure of revenge on the Lightning for the opening round loss to start with.

"This coming week we play the first of three double headers in a row, not ideal but that is how it goes," Ellis said.

"We start the weekend away playing the Lakeside Lightning. This was the team we played in the first game of the season and came up second in that encounter. We would love to repay the favour and get a win away.

"They are very good at home and have two very talented imports in (Daniel) Alexander and (TJ) Hallice. They have both been getting up some very good numbers of late and are very well assisted by some good role players. Always tough away and we are looking forward to that one."

Lightning coach Sam Oatman is also looking forward to taking on the Senators for a second time in the opening seven rounds and knows the importance of the contest for both clubs.

"Looking ahead to Stirling, we know it’s going to be a battle. Not only is it a big rivalry, but they’re playing very well having won five of their last six games," Oatman said.

"They’re a deep team that can beat you inside or from the perimeter. We have to bring a tremendous amount of energy and desire and stay committed to defence and rebounding. I’m sure it’s going to be a great game!"

Ellis will then quickly turn his and his team's attention to a dangerous Geraldton team on Sunday at home.

"We back this up with the return match against the Bucs at home. It will be nice to play them at our place and I expect another tough encounter," Ellis said.

"We will need to keep Barrow and Adekponya under the numbers they served up to us in Gero whilst not allowing the likes of (Carter) Cook, (Aaron) Ralph and (Mat) Wundenberg to get going.

"This will be a very interesting game and I just hope that we can get our fans to put in the same effort as the Geraldton fans do at their place. We need the fans to get behind us and get loud."

The Giants have plenty of talent led by imports Jacob Holmen and Kenny Manigault, but they lost twice last weekend on the road to the Hawks and Lightning on the back of squeaking by the winless Eastern Suns the previous Saturday night by a point at home.

Coach Michael Haney knows that Saturday night's clash at home to the Magic won't be easy either as they attempt to return to the winner's list and improve on a 5-4 record.

"Mandurah this weekend. They will be on a short week and having to travel will be tough!" Haney said.

"We hope to get things back on track against a team we just played three weeks ago. They will be better and it will be a tough battle as they always are!"

The Flames are in an impressive run of form coming off wins against the Magic, Lightning and Suns in recent weeks in between a narrow loss on the road to the Geraldton Buccaneers.

Rockingham will host the winless Eastern Suns on Saturday night who might be coming off an 81-point loss on ANZAC Day, but for Flames coach Mark Utley that only makes them a dangerous wounded opponent.

"This week we have the dangerous Suns in the Heat Derby," Utley said.

"We will be trying to lock down shooters and control the tempo offensively."

Then all eyes will be on Joondalup Basketball Stadium on Saturday night when Hire makes his return for the Wolfpack against the Slammers.

The Perth Wildcats vice-captain has signed for the Wolves for the rest of the season with the defending champions currently sitting atop the standings at 5-1.

But coach Ben Ettridge knows a tough contest awaits on Saturday night against a Slammers team who has been finding form on the back of imports Tre Nichols and Royal Crouch, and the support coach Michael Van Lit has put around them.

"We face a hungry Slammers outfit who are always a danger. Tre Nichols and Royal Crouch are excellent individual players, their numbers speak for themselves ranking high in all the individual stats leaders and awards this season. We are always wary of the Bunbury kids who come off the bench," Ettridge said.

"Our leaders are doing am amazing job of keeping us goal oriented and focused on getting better each week. We have not been happy by any means with our start to the season, despite what our record shows, we have massive room for improvement at both ends of the floor. We will continue to challenge ourselves each week to be better."

WEEK 7 MEN'S SBL FIXTURES
FRIDAY
Perry Lakes Hawks v Vorian Agency East Perth Eagles, Bendat Basketball Centre 8.30pm
Print Sync South West Slammers v Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers, Eaton Recreation Centre 8.30pm

SATURDAY
Silver Lake Resources Goldfields Giants v Mandurah Magic, Niels Hansen Basketball Stadium 7.30pm
Perry Lakes Hawks v S & K Electrical Contracting Geraldton Buccaneers, Bendat Basketball Centre 7.30pm
Lapa Brazilian BBQ Restaurant Cockburn Cougars v Textile WA Perth Redbacks, Wally Hagan Stadium 8pm
Merriwa Tavern & Bistro City of Joondalup Wolves v Print Sync South West Slammers, Joondalup Basketball Stadium 8pm
Lakeside Lightning v Bethanie Stirling Senators, Lakeside Recreation Centre 8pm
Nags Head Tavern Rockingham Flames v Kalamunda Eastern Suns, Mike Barnett Sports Complex 8.30pm

SUNDAY
Bethanie Stirling Senators v S & K Electrical Contracting Geraldton Buccaneers, Warwick Stadium 12pm

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Kez Creations




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