Relieved Suns turn focus to making another grand final

THE Kalamunda Eastern Suns had a tough road into the women's SBL semi finals needing three games to get by the Cockburn Cougars, but coach Craig Mansfield was relieved to advance and set up a semi final battle with the minor premier Rockingham Flames.

Coming off making last year's women's SBL grand final where they lost to the Joondalup Wolves, the Kalamunda Eastern Suns had a strong finish to the 2014 regular season to end up in fourth position in the standings with home-court advantage in the quarter finals against the Soprano Lady Cougars.

After losing Game 1 on the road, the Suns won Games 2 and 3 last weekend at home to advance to the semi finals to book in a meeting with a Rockingham Flames team who won their opening 17 games of 2014, 20 of 22 games in the regular season and needing just two games against the Willetton Tigers in the quarter finals.

The Suns and Flames now meet with a grand final berth up for grabs with the semi finals to begin this Saturday night at Ray Owen Sports Centre.

Mansfield has been a tremendous servant for Kalamunda and would love nothing more than to take his team to another grand final in his final season in charge, but he is fully aware of how tough of a challenge awaits against the Flames over the next two weekends.

"It’s a cliché but to win the championship you have to beat the best, and there is no argument that Flames have been the form team for the majority if not all of 2014," Mansfield said.

"They are very well coached, prepared, balanced, versatile and have scoring options all over the court, so they have the ability to seize momentum and score in bunches. We feel that we are one of the few teams that also tick enough of these boxes to go with them.

"They have definitely proved more consistent than us across the year but our A-grade basketball competes with theirs, the challenge for us will be understanding what actions generate our best form and how to control the game when Flames get hot.

"The first meeting this season we weren’t able to show that sort of control but in the second game we were much better and the fans got a great contest, hopefully this is an entertaining series as well."

As for the quarter final series win over the Cougars, Mansfield knew going in that it was going to be a battle between two teams with championship aspirations for 2014, and it turned out being three high-quality and hard fought contests.

In the end, the Eastern Suns won their two home games last weekend to prevail but that experience last Saturday night and Sunday afternoon left Mansfield exhausted, and full of respect for the efforts of Cockburn's playing coach Deanna Smith.

"It was a very high standard and hard fought first round series, we are relieved to get past a high quality team like Cockburn," Mansfield said.

"Deanna has done a strong job with that program in her first year and I’m sure they will continue to improve. I was absolutely exhausted after Game 3 and I didn’t have to log the 67 minutes on court she did over 18 hours.

"Both teams were tested by opposition adjustments between and within games which made it an enjoyable series to coach.

"After the last month of the season we weren’t fully prepared for the increase in intensity Game 1 provided us, so we believe we will be significantly better for the challenges we had this series.

"It was great to see the character of our team and how they responded in several critical moments within the series. Without the contributions from all our girls and seeing them step up and rise to the occasion in those moments we would not have made it through."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin




Comments

Comment Guidelines: The SportsTG Network is made up of players, families and passionate sports followers like you who have a strong opinion about sport. That's great - we want you to have your say and share your thoughts with the world. However, we have a few rules that you must follow to keep it fun for all. Please don't be rude, abusive, swear or vilify others. Apart from some pretty serious sport sanctions, we also can ban you and report you if things get out of hand. So play fair and have fun, and thanks for your contribution.

Download the GameDay App!

Stay up-to-date with your favourite teams and keep an eye on your rivals by accessing the latest match results, fixtures and stats via GameDay App.

GameDay Splash Screen
App Store Google Play