THE defending SBL champion Rockingham Flames and Joondalup Wolves both ended the seasons of the Perth Redbacks Women's and Men's teams at Belmont Oasis Leisure Centre on Friday night.

The Flames and Wolves won the Women's and Men's SBL championships respectively in 2015 and now are through to the 2016 semi finals after both won their quarter-final match ups in two games after prevailing on the road on Friday night over the Redbacks at Belmont Oasis.

Week 2 Women's Quarter Final Friday night wrap 
Week 2 Men's Quarter Final Friday night wrap 

The Orange Autos Rockingham Flames defeated the Texture WA Perth Redbacks 77-56 on the back of winning Game 1 last Friday at Mike Barnett Sports Complex 90-66 to now set up a grand final rematch in the semi finals with the Willetton Tigers.

Sami Whitcomb was the star for the Flames with 18 points in the first quarter on the way to 34 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots. She hit four of her six three-pointers in the first quarter and shot 13-of-24 from the field.

She got good support with Darcee Garbin adding 14 points and 14 rebounds for Rockingham, Ashlee Sidebottom 12 points, and Ifunanya Ibekwe 11 points, six boards, two steals and two blocks.

Flames coach Ryan Petrik was happy enough with the performance in both games to get past the Redbacks. But his players have geared up all their work this year based on wanting to be able to beat Willetton following last year's grand final, and it was only natural to have one eye on the Tigers.

"I was really happy with the first half last week and then we kind of checked out a little bit. This is the fifth year now that this team has been pretty similar and we asked them during the week if we could move on to scouting Willetton," Petrik said.

"In fairness we've been dealing with the Redbacks for about four weeks after figuring we'd probably play them in the first round maybe two weeks out from the finals so we'd spent a ton of time on Redbacks and our girls were getting sick of scouting them.

"So we asked them on Monday if we could move on to Willetton as long as we were adult enough to switch on again on Friday night. They did in the first half a little bit but geez we played ugly at times. I think in part because our girls had moved on to Willetton mentally."

Then in the Men's clash at Belmont Oasis Leisure Centre, the Wolves lost Greg Hire to a finger injury prior to the game and he might not return this year, but they had plenty of other stars standing up to ensure they advance straight through to the semi finals also against the Willetton Tigers now.

After winning Game 1 at home last Saturday night 110-95, the Merriwa Tavern & Bistro Joondalup City Wolves beat the Texture WA Perth Redbacks 103-78 on Friday night at Belmont to take the series in two games.

Rob Huntington was the main man in putting the Wolfpack on top early and he finished the night with 26 points and nine rebounds shooting 11-of-17 from the floor and 4-of-7 from deep.

Trian Iliadis added 22 points, nine rebounds and seven assists with Kevin Davis also contributing 22 points, 16 boards and four steals but it was a strong team effort from all the Wolves players to get past the strong Redbacks line-up.

Wolves coach Ben Ettridge was delighted with the effort of his group particularly at the defensive end to hold Perth to just 78 points.

"As we've said all along, we've had players and coaching staff coming in and out all year, and it's a testament to these guys that the 12 players who suit up are giving us 48 minutes of Wolfpack basketball," Ettridge said.

"This was a really, really good win after Luke (Brennan) and I were away this week. The prep fell down to the guys and they made some adjustments themselves that worked and that's a great collective effort.

"Defensively we were great. We knew they would make some adjustments and they made some adjustments from the last regular season game we played them as well, but the boys picked up on that.

"Defensively we were outstanding and were back where we were back midway through the season holding teams to under 80 points. I couldn’t be prouder of the group as a collective at the moment."

As for Hire, Ettridge doesn’t expect him back this year now because of his dislocated finger and with him officially not available for the grand final should they get there.

But with so many other players capable of standing tall, Ettridge is backing in the group he has remaining.

"It's a dislocated finger and he's in quite a lot of pain. The pain meds he is on at the moment are making him feel a bit crook so he wasn’t at the game, but he was at practice on Thursday. That's a week by week one but we know he's not here for the grand final unfortunately," Ettridge said.

"We've pretty much been told that he's required on that road trip for the Wildcats and that's his job, and we knew that was a risk but we thought it was a one per cent risk. We will live with that but we have shown we can cover one guy as great as Greg is for us.

"When Reece Maxwell, Robbie and those guys all step up, we are pretty much back to the team we had last year. Seb (Salinas) got off a plane an hour before the game and his defence on the wings was great. DeMuynck is a tough cover for anyone but Seb and Maxy were out there battling.

"Robbie was phenomenal and what do you say about Kevin Davis. The guys just went out in that last quarter and asserted his dominance and made sure there was no question we were going to take care of business."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Serene-Elise Photography