THE top four Women's SBL teams at the end of the regular season are now the last four left in 2016 heading into the semi finals beginning with the Game 1 matches this weekend as the Flames take on the Tigers in a Grand Final rematch, and the Lady Wolfpack face the Hawks.

After playing off in last year's Grand Final, the Orange Autos Rockingham Flames and Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers will now meet in the semi finals for 2016 with Game 1 taking place on Friday night at Mike Barnett Sports Complex.

Then on Saturday night, the No. 1 seed Merriwa Tavern & Bistro Joondalup City Wolves host Game 1 at Joondalup Basketball Stadium against the Perry Lakes Hawks who finished the regular season in fourth position.

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The Flames and Tigers were the two dominant teams in 2015 and that ended up with them doing battle in the Grand Final where a remarkable individual performance by Sami Whitcomb saw Rockingham win its second straight championship.

Now backing up from that, the Flames and Tigers finished in second and third position respectively at the end of the regular season.

The two teams met twice during the season and that saw Willetton win big to open the campaign but that was a game where WNBL players Whitcomb, Ifunanya Ibekwe, Darcee Garbin and Louella Tomlinson were all absent.

The more recent meeting was in Rockingham a month ago when the Flames won by 14 points with that victory ending up securing second spot and now home court advantage for the semi-final series.

Both teams had little trouble in their respective quarter-final series' either with the Flames beating the Perth Redbacks by 24 points at home and 21 on the road. The Tigers beat the Lakeside Lightning by 43 points at home and then 12 on the road last Friday night.

There are stars all over the floor and while Whitcomb and Ibekwe have the potential to be match winners for the Flames, if the Tigers back court led by Kate Malpass can be efficient and productive then the series could well be decided inside.

Willetton has the chance to take advantage on the back of Tomlinson, Zoe Harper and Emma Lobb, but Garbin will want to show she can stand tall with help from Ashlee Sidebottom, Ella Kennedy and even Ibekwe.

Flames coach Ryan Petrik has had the plan all season to have his team primed for this time of year and for this very opponent, but he has no doubt the Tigers are in a very similar situation.

"They remind us of us a lot in terms of just cruising through the season. We were both there last year obviously and they had a bunch of girls miss a chunk of this regular season as did we, but Joondalup has generally had its full squad available and from afar it seemed like they went really hard to get No. 1," Petrik said.

"But stepping back and looking at it, it would look like Rockingham and Willetton just kind of cruised through just to get there in good shape.

"Willetton reminds us a lot of us where they come out and play really well one night, then the next night go in cruise control and we've been doing the same thing all year as well. It's hard to get them up again, again and again knowing the real stuff doesn’t start until late August."

There is also quite a rivalry having developed between the Flames and Tigers in recent years and with the two clubs having now won five of the last seven Women's SBL championships. While there is plenty of friendships too, Petrik has no doubt that goes out the window once the game starts.

"There's actually a bit of a weird dynamic because there's a lot of friendships among the two teams so on one hand it's a series where there isn’t any hatred on either side. Normally there is when you've played in the finals against each other, but in this series there's not," Petrik said.

"Simon's the nicest guy you'll ever meet and there is a lot of really good friendships within both teams but there's also a lot of white line fever. There's a lot of girls on both teams who will kill each other to try and win.

"And both teams have almost played possum all year to get to the final four and go from there. You saw it when we played Willo down in Rockingham and unfortunately it was the slippery dip night, but it just went up a level and it felt like a final before the game even started because second seed was on the line."

The Wolves and Hawks then do battle in Game 1 of their semi-final battle at Joondalup Basketball Stadium on Saturday night ahead of the Wolfpack Men's team also hosting the Willetton Tigers in a big double-header.

The Lady Wolfpack are attempting to make their first Grand Final since winning the 2013 championship while the Lady Hawks haven’t made a Grand Final since losing to the Willetton Tigers in 2010, or won a title since 2008.

The Wolves finished the regular season in first position with a 19-3 record to set up a quarter-final match up with the Cockburn Cougars which they had little trouble with, winning Game 1 at home by 17 points and Game 2 at Wally Hagan Stadium by 21.

The Hawks, meanwhile, finished fourth and took on the Mandurah Magic in what always appeared to be the most fascinating quarter-final match up. It turned out that way with Perry Lakes managing to win Games 1 and 3 at home by two and 12 points, while Mandurah forced the decider by winning Game 2 by eight points.

Both teams have stars with the Wolves led by Klara Wischer and Nikita-Lee Martin, and the Hawks by Deanna Smith and Antonia Edmondson but it could well be the best support cast that proves pivotal.

Also of interest Wolves centre Ellyce Ironmonger will play in Saturday's Game 1 but won't be available next weekend.

The teams met twice during the season with the Wolves winning a thriller by a point at Joondalup back in Week 5 before also winning at Bendat Basketball Centre by 15 in Week 13, but Wolfpack coach Craig Friday isn't reading too much into that and knows how tough the Hawks are.

"In that second game they didn’t have Toni when she was away but we had a great game against them on our court in the first game of the season," Friday said.

"Both teams have come a long way since then and they have Deanna Smith who has been to an Olympics and played in World Championships so she still has that class about her.

"Toni is an international so they have a couple of quality players there and CJ has mixed that in with his young kids and they are playing some really good basketball.

"We know how tough this series is going to be but we'll continue to apply ourselves and it will be a challenge because they execute well, CJ mixes his D up and it's a different sort of a look. It will be interesting to see how we go against them."

It might be tempting for the Wolves to put all their focus into trying to shutdown veteran Hawks pair Smith and Edmondson because of how good they are, but Friday knows it would be a mistake to overlook the rest of the group CJ Jackson has developed.

"We'll cover off on everyone in their team and we will make sure we cover off on everyone's strengths and weaknesses. We never go out focusing on any one person, we go out to defend a team," Friday said.

"We understand they also have Laura, Sarah and some other weapons on top of Deanna and Toni. There's no secret that CJ can get his complete roster scoring so we have to be on our mettle right across the court. We will work hard on that this week to put some plans in place that will hopefully restrict them as a team and then see what we can do at the other end of the court as well."

WOMEN'S SEMI-FINAL GAME 1 SBL FIXTURES
FRIDAY
Orange Autos Rockingham Flames v Goodlife Homes Willetton Tigers, Mike Barnett Sports Complex 7pm

SATURDAY
Merriwa Tavern & Bistro Joondalup City Wolves v Perry Lakes Hawks, Joondalup Basketball Stadium 6pm

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by June Halliday