THE Willetton Tigers and Joondalup Wolves secured their Men's SBL quarter-final match ups on Friday night winning their Game 2's on the road but the Perry Lakes Hawks were able to force a decider with the minor premier Cockburn Cougars.

Three of the four Game 2 quarter-final Men's matches took place on Friday night at the home venue of the lower ranked team with the higher ranked Wolves and Tigers prevailing to set up a semi-final meeting, while the No. 8 seed Hawks got over the Cougars to force a Game 3.

The Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers secured their series 2-0 over the Bethanie Stirling Senators with a 103-99 victory at Warwick Stadium while the Merriwa Tavern & Bistro Joondalup City Wolves also beat the Texture WA Perth Redbacks 2-0, winning Game 2 103-78 at Belmont Oasis Leisure Centre.

That means that the seasons are over for the Senators and Redbacks while the Tigers and Wolves get set for a semi-final match up starting next weekend with Game 1 at Joondalup Basketball Stadium.

Defending champions end season for Redbacks Men and Women

The Perry Lakes Hawks were able to force the first Game 3 of 2016 by beating the minor premier Lapa Brazilian BBQ Restaurant Cockburn Cougars at Bendat Basketball Centre 96-85.

Game 3 will take place on Saturday night at Wally Hagan Stadium with tip-off set for 8pm.

Starting at Warwick Stadium, the Senators needed to beat the Tigers on their home floor to force a deciding Game 3 back at Willetton and little separated the two teams for much of the evening.

The Tigers did manage to open up a six-point advantage by quarter-time and still led 56-51 at the half. The Senators closed that gap to just one by three quarter-time but with 29 points to 26 in the fourth quarter the Tigers did enough to win on the road and advance.

Both teams shot quite well from the field with the Tigers going 40-of-83 at 48 per cent and the Senators 39-of-83 at 46 per cent. Stirling nailed 11-of-28 threes and Willetton 10-of-34 but it was the Tigers' pressure that forced the Senators into 21 turnovers and they scored 24 points from those.

After being ill last weekend, Damien Scott stepped up this Friday for the Tigers top-scoring with 28 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals shooting 12-of-21 from the floor and 4-of-11 from downtown.

Nic Cody added 19 points and four boards as well for Willetton with Jay Bowie contributing 17 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals, Charles Funches 16 points, seven boards, three assists and three blocked shots, Andrew Black nine points and Kyle Armour eight points, eight assists, seven rebounds and two steals.

Cody Ellis top-scored for the Senators with 24 points, eight rebounds and four assists with Kyle Lindbergh contributing 17 points, nine boards and seven assists.

Jayden Coburn suffered through foul trouble in Game 1 but made up for that on Friday with 15 points, three assists, three rebounds and two assists while hitting three triples despite seven turnovers.

Ashley Litterick added 14 points and 10 rebounds for Stirling, AJ Majstrovich 12 points, six assists and five rebounds, and Corban Wroe 11 points, five boards and four assists.

Then at Bendat Basketball Centre, the Hawks had some momentum out of a big fourth quarter comeback that just fell short at Wally Hagan Stadium last Friday and they started strongly on their home floor this Friday.

Perry Lakes scored 27 points to 19 in the first quarter and then still led against the No. 1 seeds, who were without captain Gavin Field, 48-39 at half-time.

The Cougars did go up a cog in the third quarter with 21 points to 15 but the Hawks again pulled away in the fourth with 33 points to 25 to win by 11 and force the Game 3 on Saturday night at Cockburn.

The Hawks ended the night shooting 47 per cent from the field at 33-of-70 while nailing 9-of-25 from three-point territory at 36 per cent and 21-of-25 at the free-throw line at 84 per cent. The Cougars went 33-of-81 at 40 per cent from the floor, 3-of-15 at 20 per cent from deep and 16-of-22 from the stripe at 72 per cent.

Bryton Hobbs continues to be a difference maker for the Hawks getting back to his best after missing much of the season with a wrist injury, finishing with 29 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and five steals shooting 10-of-21 from the field, 4-of-11 from downtown and 5-of-6 from the stripe.

Ben Purser added 21 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals for Perry Lakes, Brian Carlwell 14 points, 12 boards, three blocks and two assists, Ryan Smith 11 points, four rebounds and three assists, and Ryan O'Sullivan 10 points and five rebounds.

The Hawks were again without Jordan Hickert and Josh Garlepp.

Marcus Goode delivered 29 points and nine rebounds for the Cougars with Najee Lane adding 19 points, eight boards and four assists, Sheldon McIntyre 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and Rhett Della nine points, seven boards and four assists.

Lastly at Belmont Oasis Leisure Centre, the Wolves looked to wrap up the quarter-final series with the Redbacks in two games but would have to do so without Greg Hire who has injured a finger that looks likely to end his SBL season with him ruled out of the grand final due to Perth Wildcats commitments if the Wolfpack manage to get there.

But the Wolfpack had enough other players to stand up in his absence and they were on top of the Redbacks virtually from the outset and led by double-digits most of the evening going on to win by 25 points to end an encouraging season for Perth in disappointing fashion.

The Wolves dominated the boards with 54 rebounds to just 36 from the Redbacks while Joondalup forced Perth into 20 turnovers and scored 25 points from those. The Wolfpack also scored 56 points in the paint to 44.

The frustrations of knowing their season was over boiled over late in the game for the Redbacks as well with Michael Vigor frustrated at a tough call leading to him fouling out while coach Nik Lackovic received a technical foul and Jourdan DeMuynck grew a little frustrated with some of the visiting Wolves fans.

Rob Huntington had a huge first quarter in particular for the Wolfpack and the big man ended the night with 26 points and nine rebounds. He also received some words of advice late in the game from Lackovic while waiting to check in.

Trian Iliadis also added 22 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and two blocked shots for Joondalup with Kevin Davis contributing 22 points, 16 boards, four steals, two blocks and two assists.

Joel Questel contributed eight points for the Wolves, Damian Matacz eight points and four rebounds and captain Seb Salinas six points to go with six boards and four assists.

DeMuynck never stopped trying for the Redbacks finishing with 26 points and 10 rebounds with Ben Smith finishing with 16 points, three rebounds and two assists in his 200th SBL appearance.

Joel Wagner ended up with 10 points, three rebounds and three assists for Perth but big men Vigor (nine points, three assists) and Lewis Thomas (seven points, eight boards, three assists, two blocks) weren't able to have the impact they hoped.

Another player the Redbacks would have hoped for a lot more from was import Reed McConnell with the shooter going scoreless with two rebounds and one assists from eight minutes of court time.

MEN'S QUARTER FINAL GAME 2 MATCHES
Perry Lakes Hawks 96 defeated Lapa Brazilian BBQ Restaurant Cockburn Cougars 85
Bethanie Stirling Senators 99 lost to Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers 103
Texture WA Perth Redbacks 78 lost to Merriwa Tavern & Bistro Joondalup City Wolves 103

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin