Suns, Lightning Men's coaches react to overtime thriller

KALAMUNDA and Lakeside played out a Men's SBL overtime thriller last Friday night with Michael Clarke's Suns winning for the first time in 2016 while Sam Oatman's Lightning lost a fifth consecutive match.

The two teams delivered an exciting and high-scoring affair that went into overtime last Friday at Lakeside Recreation Centre, but in the end the feelings of the two coaches couldn’t have been more contrasting.

For Suns coach Michael Clarke, it was a feeling of relief after he took over a team that had lost their last 15 matches of 2015 and then lost their opening 11 of 2016.

Despite a couple of blowouts in those 11 matches, the signs have been encouraging for the Eastern Suns that Clarke has the team on the right track for the future and they had proven capable of putting points on the board, but not necessarily stopping the opposition from scoring to any great degree.

But on Friday night, Clarke's Kalamunda stuck firm to force an overtime period and then while there, score 21 points to 16 from Lakeside to win 128-123.

Jarrad Prior had his best game with the Suns with 31 points to earn Team of the Week honours while Kerrod Horn (20 points), Brandon McGill (18, 11 assists, eight rebounds, six steals), Tim Squire (17, three assists, three steals) and Travis McIlroy (10) all made strong contributions.

Coach Clarke was both relieved and proud to come away with the victory.

"I am relieved that our team’s hard work has been rewarded with its first win of the season," Clarke said.

"I am proud that we were able to close out a tight game and win playing our way; with 12 players, taking 109 shots, making 21 from long-range, forcing 37 turnovers and stealing the ball 20 times."

It was a completely opposite feeling coming off the defeat for Lakeside coach Sam Oatman.

Seeing his team cough up 37 turnovers, miss 21 free-throws and lose while attempting 104 shots and making a respectable 45 per cent of them is something that has given him nightmares all week.

It was the fifth straight loss for the Lightning as well leading into a clash with the league-leading defending champion Joondalup Wolves this Friday at home.

"I don’t know everything about the game, but I know you’ll never beat anyone if you turn it over 37 times and miss 21 free throws," Oatman said.

"We couldn’t stop their penetration and we couldn’t handle their pressure."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin




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