THE East Perth Eagles and Perry Lakes Hawks both play teams above them in Week 19 of the Men's SBL as they continue to fight over eighth spot while five teams remain locked in the race for third and fourth with those places potentially decided this weekend.

It's all set for a fascinating Week 19 in the SBL starting Friday night with the Mandurah Magic playing the Lapa Brazilian BBQ Restaurant Cockburn Cougars, the Texture WA Perth Redbacks facing the Merriwa Tavern & Bistro Joondalup City Wolves and the Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers taking on the Lakeside Lightning.

Saturday night begins with the Silver Lake Resources Goldfields Giants hosting the S&K Electrical Geraldton Buccaneers with the Perry Lakes Hawks playing the Nags Head Tavern & Bistro Rockingham Flames and the Bethanie Stirling Senators taking on the Vorian Agency East Perth Eagles.

The Texture WA Perth Redbacks also host the Lakeside Lightning, the Kalamunda Eastern Suns battle the Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers and the Mandurah Magic face the Print Sync South West Slammers.

The Joondalup Wolves and Cockburn Cougars are guaranteed of finishing in the top two positions but the minor premiership is still to be determined with the Wolfpack on the road this Friday against the Perth Redbacks while the Cougars host the Mandurah Magic.

That all leads to a contest between the two next Friday night at Wally Hagan Stadium.

The Geraldton Buccaneers, Willetton Tigers, Rockingham Flames, Stirling Senators and Perth Redbacks are the five teams still in contention to finish in third and fourth position coming into Week 19.

The Buccs currently sit third at 16-8 ahead of taking on the Giants on the road on Saturday night.

The Tigers are fourth at 15-8 having lost their last two games ahead of a double-header this weekend at home to the Lakeside Lightning and away to the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

The Flames have won their last three now to improve to 15-9 as they prepare to battle the eighth placed Hawks this Friday night on the road.

The Senators have lost their last three to be 15-9 also leading into a Saturday night battle at home against the ninth placed Eagles.

Then the Redbacks won twice last weekend to improve to a 14-9 record in seventh position ahead of hosting the Wolves this Friday night and then playing the Lightning on the road on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Hawks and Eagles remain in a battle over eighth position. Perry Lakes is currently eighth at 10-14 ahead of facing Rockingham at home on Saturday night. East Perth is ninth at 10-14 with a game against Stirling on the road this Saturday.

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The Wolves currently sit on top of the SBL as they hunt back to back championships. They will remain there with wins over the Redbacks and Cougars to finish their season but coach Ben Ettridge knows the threat the Redbacks possess with or without Michael Vigor.

"They are big improvers this year and getting Michael Vigor back has been massive for them. He is a quality player and someone who would fit perfectly into our system so we respect them very much," Ettridge said.

"Jourdan DeMuynck is another great player and Joel Wagner is a pass-first point guard who would fit perfectly into what we do. They're a team we respect very much and down there on their home court they're a handful. We're looking forward to that one on Friday night."

The Redbacks are guaranteed a playoff spot but if they want to finish any higher than seventh and avoid a quarter-final against either the Wolves or Cougars, a win at home on Friday of the Wolfpack will go a long way to achieving that.

At half-time on Sunday the Redbacks wanted to play well against the Giants to build momentum for the clash with Joondalup and now coach Nik Lackovic is looking forward to seeing how they stack up against the defending champions.

"In the locker room at half-time we spoke about what we wanted to do against the Giants and really stepping it up," Lackovic said.

"We had a 10-point lead and weren’t great defensively, but we made the adjustments and held them to 10 points in the first six minutes and scored 30 ourselves which was off the back of our defence.

"We know against the good teams like Joondalup who we are playing on Friday, that's what it's going to be about. It's about getting in the trenches and the big possessions that really count. We're looking forward to playing a really good team to see where we're at.

"We'd love to have everybody on the floor playing against them at full strength, but it's a great opportunity going into the playoffs playing against high quality teams."

The Lightning have responded impressively to a 13-game losing run to have now won their last three including a solid 96-87 win over the Slammers last Friday night.

Lakeside might not have playoffs to shoot for but will want to finish the season on a high and this weekend presents a good opportunity with games against the playoff bound Tigers and Redbacks. Coach Sam Oatman is looking forward to it.

"We dug ourselves quite a hole early on (last week against the Slammers), but then we made a conscious effort to get stops and push the tempo. We won the rebounding battle and forced 24 turnovers. All those things combined led to the win. Daniel Alexander and Daniel Grida were sensational," Oatman said.

"We never really put up a fight in our first game (against Willetton). They’re coming off two tough losses, so we know they’re going to really want this one. We have to do a better job of containing their guards and look to dominate inside.

"It’s always tough to play two road games on back-to-back nights, but they (Redbacks) have a hard game on Friday night as well so there’s no advantage for either team. I’m not saying we’ll win, but I know we’ll play hard and with a ton of confidence as we really have nothing to lose."

The Lightning are certainly not a team the Redbacks and Lackovic will be taking lightly either after Lakeside scored a 99-91 win over Perth just two weeks ago.

"I don’t think about what happened previously. The only thing I think about is the next game. I don’t hold anything about that game we lost to Lakeside, what I hold is how poor we were in certain situations," Lackovic said.

"It doesn’t matter who the opposition was so we want to prepare well enough to beat Lakeside and we know we will need to do certain things really well. If we those well then we should be in a good spot this time around."

WEEK 19 MEN'S SBL FIXTURES
FRIDAY
Mandurah Magic v Lapa Brazilian BBQ Restaurant Cockburn Cougars, Mike Barnett Sports Complex 8.30pm
Texture WA Perth Redbacks v Merriwa Tavern & Bistro Joondalup City Wolves, Belmont Oasis Leisure Centre 8.30pm
Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers v Lakeside Lightning, Willetton Basketball Stadium 8.30pm

SATURDAY
Silver Lake Resources Goldfields Giants v S&K Electrical Geraldton Buccaneers, Niels Hansen Basketball Stadium 7.30pm
Texture WA Perth Redbacks v Lakeside Lightning, Belmont Oasis Leisure Centre 8pm
Bethanie Stirling Senators v Vorian Agency East Perth Eagles, Warwick Stadium 8pm
Perry Lakes Hawks v Nags Head Tavern & Bistro Rockingham Flames, Bendat Basketball Centre 8pm
Mandurah Magic v Print Sync South West Slammers, Mike Barnett Sports Complex 8.30pm
Kalamunda Eastern Suns v Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers, Ray Owen Recreation Centre 8.30pm

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin