THE Rockingham Flames and Perry Lakes Hawks both bounced back in their semi-final series' in the Women's SBL on Friday night to force deciding Game 3's against the Willetton Tigers and Joondalup Wolves.

After the Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers delivered a commanding performance in Game 1 last Friday, the defending champion Orange Autos Rockingham Flames bounced back on Friday night at Willetton Basketball Stadium to win 76-62.

Game 3 will now be decided on Saturday night back at Mike Barnett Sports Complex.

The Merriwa Tavern & Bistro Joondalup City Wolves raced to a 37-point half-time lead last Saturday night but the Perry Lakes Hawks turned that around on Friday night at Bendat Basketball Centre to prevail 60-56.

That means that Game 3 will take place on Saturday night at Joondalup Basketball Stadium.

The winner of the two Game 3 matches will meet in Friday night's Women's SBL Grand Final for 2016 at Bendat Basketball Centre.

Parker's faith in Tigers players paying dividends 
No complacency by Lady Wolfpack against dangerous Hawks 
Flames hoping Game 1 calamity was a one-off bad night 
Jackson hopes comforts of home help settle semi-final nerves 
Women's SBL Q&A – Kate Malpass 

Starting at Willetton Basketball Stadium in the rematch from last year's thrilling Grand Final, the Flames had won the last two championships but had to bounce back from a disappointing Game 1 performance where the Tigers outplayed them in all areas to end up winning 82-59.

It was Rockingham's heaviest defeat in over three years aside from the opening round of this season when Darcee Garbin, Sami Whitcomb and Ifunanya Ibekwe were all unavailable, and the Flames did well to respond.

The Tigers executed near perfectly at both ends of the floor in Game 1 but that didn’t happen on Friday night as the Flames turned up their intensity on defence to put some more pressure on their shots, and also found a little more rhythm offensively.

It wasn’t pretty for much of the night but the Flames did what they needed by turning it into more of a scrap and they ended up prevailing by 14 points to now return home for Game 3 with a Grand Final spot at stake.

The Flames started strongly and never surrendered the advantage ending up shooting 44 per cent from the field while winning the rebound battle by six despite still coughing up 20 turnovers. The Tigers managed to shoot just 34 per cent from the floor.

While Rockingham's big three had good games, the difference maker proved to be Jacinta Bourne who finished with 18 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals including hitting three triples.

Flames coach Ryan Petrik always knew the importance of Bourne and that's why he wanted her to keep playing despite moving to Kalgoorlie.

"When she plays alongside Sam, she helps Sam out enormously. Last week she got two fouls in the first minute and had to sit, and only played 15 minutes and suddenly they can do whatever they want to Sam," Petrik said.

"But Jacinta Bourne plays 30 minutes tonight and suddenly we have options all over the floor. She's integral to us."

Ibekwe also ended up with 21 points, 15 rebounds and six assists, Whitcomb 17 points, four boards and four assists, and Garbin 15 points and eight rebounds. Ella Kennedy contributed five points and three boards.

"As they say in golf there's no pictures on the scorecard and you can bounce it off the tree as much as you like as long as it lands on the fairway, and that wasn’t a pretty game but again we won and it didn’t matter what it looked like," Petrik said.

"The ends are linked and we made some shots early and suddenly everyone wanted to fly around on defence. Last week we couldn’t buy a basket and decided we wouldn’t play defence either. That's not how it works at this time of year, you play hard regardless and that's what we did tonight.

"The girls were pretty ticked and the club was with the effort last week so that was the message pre-game. If we are going to lose we do it playing as hard as we can, and if they are better than us then they are better than us but they can't outwork us. That was the basic message."

Given both the Flames and Tigers would have come into 2016 expecting to at least make the Grand Final, Petrik knows the pressure is there but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

"The girls went and got some ice and some rest, and we went home and did another film session. Simon's right, we did a mountain of film and work this week and we'll watch this film five or six times before tomorrow night to try and find some more holes," Petrik said.

"There should be pressure on both teams. There's three weeks of the year you really care about and that's when you get down to the last four teams. Last week we gave one of those weeks away so now we've made it hard for ourselves but played with great effort and you play the whole season for these last three games of the year and here we are."

Kate Malpass again top-scored for the Tigers with 19 points, five assists and three steals with Louella Tomlinson ending up with 14 points, six boards, six blocks, five assists and four steals. Emma Lobb contributing 10 points and five rebounds from the bench.

Tigers coach Simon Parker feels the major difference between Games 1 and 2 was Willetton's shots falling and then not falling. So he is backing his team to get back to nailing their shots in Game 3 and the result could be a second straight Grand Final appearance.

"We feel disappointed but we aren’t going to dwell on the performance because we know how good we can play. We just have to make sure we do it tomorrow night and work a little bit harder in the right areas," Parker said.

"The only difference really was that we didn’t make enough shots and they were easy shots as well with a lot of them under the basket and in the post. Missing those shots was all it was really. We don't change anything now. We got up seven more shots than them and we just have to hit them.

"We are now just going to play how we normally play and if it works for us, it works for us. Our defensive effort was pretty good again even though they got a lot of cheap baskets. We were meant to limit their role players but didn’t do a good enough job there especially on Bourne.

"We go into Game 3 excited because we know we can actually play and challenge them to actually maybe come away with the win. The belief and intensity wasn’t there tonight but it will be tomorrow night. If we don't replicate what we did there last week, we won't win so that's the aim."

Meanwhile at Bendat Basketball Centre, the Hawks might have been blown away in the first half of Game 1 but they actually won the second half last Saturday against the Lady Wolfpack and took that confidence into Game 2 on their home floor.

The Hawks took control of the game during the second quarter with 15 points to eight and in a tight and tense second half, Perry Lakes managed to maintain its nerve and hold on to win by four to force the decider back in Joondalup.

The Hawks did well putting the Wolves under pressure causing them to shoot 21-of-74 from the field at 28 per cent and 4-of-22 from three at 18 per cent while shooting 26-of-62 themselves at 41 per cent from the floor and 5-of-12 at 41 per cent from deep.

Perry Lakes also won the rebound battle 46 to 33 despite 25 turnovers. But the Hawks did well to limit the points off those turnovers to just 14.

There's no doubt the absence of centre Ellyce Ironmonger for the Lady Wolfpack was a factor as well.

Deanna Smith had a strong game for the Hawks finishing with 17 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists while Kate Anthony contributed 11 points and six boards, Lauren Jeffers 10 points, five rebounds and five assists, Antonia Edmondson 10 points and 12 boards, and Sarah Donovan eight points, six rebounds and two blocked shots.

Amy Kidner top-scored for the Wolves with 12 points and eight rebounds while Klara Wischer had 12 points, nine boards and five steals, Abbie Ironmonger nine points, Nikita-Lee Martin eight points and eight rebounds, and Shani Amos seven points, four boards and four assists.

WOMEN'S SEMI FINAL GAME 2 MATCHES
Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers 62 lost to Orange Autos Rockingham Flames 76
Perry Lakes Hawks 60 defeated Merriwa Tavern & Bistro Joondalup City Wolves 56

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Serene-Elise Photography