THE Perth Redbacks scored two strong wins over the Perry Lakes Hawks, the Willetton Tigers won two tough encounters over the Mandurah Magic and the East Perth and Rockingham Men also prevailed over Goldfields and Geraldton respectively in Saturday night SBL action.

There were two Women's Week 10 Saturday night matches with the Textile WA Perth Redbacks defeating the Perry Lakes Hawks 103-72 at Bendat Basketball Centre and the Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers beating the Mandurah Magic 71-68 at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

In the corresponding Men's matches, the Textile WA Perth Redbacks also beat the Perry Lakes Hawks 117-95 and the Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers prevailed over the Mandurah Magic 88-76.

The Vorian Agency East Perth Eagles made the trip to Niels Hansen Basketball Stadium and came away with a 92-90 win over the Silver Lake Resources Goldfields Giants while the Nags Head Tavern Rockingham Flames beat the S&K Electrical Contracting Geraldton Buccaneers 106-95 at Mike Barnett Sports Complex.

Starting with the Women's action, the Redbacks improved to a 6-5 record on the season after beating the Hawks by 31 points. Perry Lakes was without Antonia Edmondson again, and slipped to a 7-4 record with a second straight loss.

The Redbacks led by just six at half-time but dominated the second half with 30 points to 15 in the third quarter, and 28 to 18 in the fourth.

Perth did well outrebounding Perry Lakes 39 to 29 while forcing the Hawks into 22 turnovers and scoring 21 points off those.

Rebecca Benson finished with 22 points, five assists, four rebounds and two blocked shots for the Redbacks on shooting 7-of-11 from the field, 4-of-7 from three-point range and 4-of-5 from the free-throw line.

Ajay Jones delivered another 17 points, six steals, four rebounds and two assists for Perth while hitting 3-of-7 threes and nailing all four free-throw attempts. Jess Jakens contributed 17 points and nine rebounds and Gabby O'Sullivan 15 points.

Deanna Smith returned for the Hawks with 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals while Lauren Jeffers added 13 points and six assists, Kate Anthony 12 points and Sarah Donovan 11 points, six boards, two assists and two blocks.

The league-leading Tigers had to overcome a slow start and the absence of Louella Tomlinson and Desiree Kelley to fight right to the end to overcome a determined Magic team on Saturday night.

Mandurah made a flying start with 28 points to 18 against Willetton and while the Tigers hit back before half-time, scores were all tied up heading into the fourth quarter.

The Tigers just managed to do enough in the final period to win by three points and improve to 10-1 on top of the standings, but the Magic can take great heart from the performance despite it meaning they slip to 4-7.

Kate Malpass stood up for the Tigers to finish with 27 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two steals while Zoe Harper added 12 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks shots.

Ebony Antonio contributed 12 points for Willetton and Lara Napier 10 points.

Casey Mihovilovich did all she could to try and lift the Magic over the line finishing with 23 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals.

Annette Davis added 15 points, 12 rebounds and five assists for Mandurah, Emma Klasztorny 10 points and five boards and Adijat Adams 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots.

Then in Saturday night's Men's action, the Eagles won their second match in as many attempts with Tom Jervis in the line-up after beating the Giants on the road by two points.

Goldfields held a five-point advantage heading into the fourth quarter but East Perth finished the stronger to score the win and improve to 4-6 on the season while the Giants slip to 6-8 with a fourth successive defeat.

Jervis came off the bench for the Eagles and delivered 21 points, 12 rebounds and two assists shooting 8-of-14 from the field.

Rhys Vague added 18 points and eight rebounds for East Perth, Drew Williamson 17 points and Nikola Donlagic 12 points, five rebounds and two assists.

Daniel Goodluck top-scored for the Giants with 20 points and four rebounds with Kenny Manigault contributing 19 points, 13 assists, 12 rebounds and six steals in a strong all-round performance.

Edin Zunic also finished with 14 points, nine boards and two blocks for Goldfields and Jacob Holmen 13 points, 10 boards and four assists.

The Flames scored a second win inside 24 hours with a strong performance to beat the dangerous Buccaneers by 11 points at home.

Rockingham put together a tremendous first three quarters to open up an 88-66 advantage and then withstood a spirited comeback from Geraldton to score the win to improve to 9-6 while the Buccaneers slip to 9-4.

The pressure from the Flames was terrific forcing the Buccs into 23 turnovers on the night of which they managed to score 27 points from.

Cooper Land once again led the way for Rockingham finishing with 27 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots with Ryan Godfrey contributing 27 points and six assists.

Taylor Land added 16 points and eight assists for the Flames, Matthew Honey 10 points, six boards and two steals, and Jarryd Griffin nine points, six rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks.

Matthew Adekponya continued his strong form for the Buccs with 30 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and two steals with Maurice Barrow contributing 17 points and six boards, and Aaron Ralph 12 points and nine rebounds. Mat Wundenberg added five points, 12 rebounds and three assists.

The Redbacks continued their resurgent form with a 22-point win over the Hawks at Bendat Basketball Centre. Perth has now won its last four games now to improve to a 6-6 record while Perry Lakes slips to 7-7 with the loss.

The Redbacks started on fire with 33 first quarter points to 24 and then another 35 to 22 in the second quarter. By three quarter-time, they led 94-65 and cruised to the win despite 30 final stanza points by the Hawks.

The Redbacks did well to force 24 turnovers by the Hawks and score 34 points as a result while also dominating the paint with 52 points inside to 32 by Perry Lakes.

Lewis Thomas top-scored for the Redbacks with 27 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots shooting 11-of-20 from the field and 3-of-5 from downtown.

Ben Smith contributed 20 points and four rebounds off the bench for Perth with Michael Vigor contributing 16 points, five boards, four assists and two blocked shots, and Joel Wagner 14 points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals.

Jourdan DeMuynck added 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals for the Redbacks and Reed McConnell 11 points.

Brian Carlwell finished with 16 points and nine rebounds for the Hawks with Ben Dixon adding 14 points, four assists and three boards, Ben Purser 13 points, six rebounds and three assists, Jackson Simkovic 13 points and Matthew Sellers 12 along with 11 rebounds.

The Tigers had to fight hard to overcome the Magic by 12 points at home on Saturday night but the win improves Willetton to 9-4 in the top four while Mandurah slips to 4-10 with a second loss for the weekend.

Mandurah won the rebounding count 55-47 but did cough up 20 turnovers that allowed Willetton to score 29 points while the Tigers were also better in the paint with 42 points to 28.

Damien Scott had a big night for the Tigers finishing with 34 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and two steals shooting 13-of-27 from the field and 5-of-13 from downtown.

Kyle Armour added 16 points and six assists for Willetton, Jay Bowie 15 points, six rebounds and four dimes, Nic Cody 11 points, seven boards and three blocks, and Charles Funches 10 points and 14 rebounds.

Ben Smith top-scored for the Magic with 25 points, 19 rebounds and three blocked shots in the absence of Taylor Mullenax.

Tom Remmerswaal added 17 points for Mandurah and Trevor Setty 15 points and 11 rebounds.

SATURDAY WOMEN'S SBL MATCHES
Perry Lakes Hawks 72 lost to Textile WA Perth Redbacks 103
Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers 71 defeated Mandurah Magic 68

SATURDAY MEN'S SBL MATCHES
Silver Lake Resources Goldfields Giants 90 lost to Vorian Agency East Perth Eagles 92
Nags Head Tavern Rockingham Flames 106 defeated S&K Electrical Contracting Geraldton Buccaneers 95
Perry Lakes Hawks 95 lost to Textile WA Perth Redbacks 117
Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers 88 defeated Mandurah Magic 76

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin