THE Perth Redbacks got their second win of the weekend to open the 2017 Men's SBL season on Saturday night while the Geraldton Buccaneers, Joondalup Wolves, Lakeside Lightning and Willetton Tigers all started with victories too.

Following a terrific opening night to the season on Friday, there were five games on Saturday night in Round 1 and again some outstanding contests across the league.

The Perth Redbacks backed up their win in Rockingham on Friday by defeating the Goldfields Giants 78-60 at Belmont Oasis even without Shawn Redhage. The Geraldton Buccaneers opened their campaign with a strong 119-84 road win over the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

Week 1 Friday night men's SBL results

The rematch of last year's grand final certainly didn’t fail to disappoint with that rivalry looking set to now continue right into 2017. The Joondalup Wolves ended up prevailing 104-101 over the Cockburn Cougars at Joondalup Basketball Stadium.

The Lakeside Lightning were able to prevail in a thriller 84-82 over the South West Slammers at Eaton Recreation Centre while the Willetton Tigers defeated the Mandurah Magic 87-73 at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

Starting at Belmont Oasis, the Redbacks were coming off the high of a big win on Friday with a team featuring Redhage and Alex Loughton.

Despite the attention those NBL greats have received and rightfully so, there's plenty of exciting young talent at the Redbacks and Kyle Bowen showed a glimpse into his outstanding future with 20 points and 15 rebounds on 9-of-14 shooting.

Loughton replaced Redhage in the starting line-up and had 17 points, 14 rebounds and four assists with Joel Wagner adding 10 points and six assists for Perth, and Diing Mawein nine points.

Jerrell Sanders, the short-term replacement for the injured Jacob Holmen, top-scored for the Giants with 18 points, five rebounds and four assists. Luke Pike added 10 points and six boards but JB Pillard couldn’t quite have the impact he hoped with six points and five rebounds.

The Eastern Suns then hosted the Buccaneers. Kalamunda was coming off a Friday night loss to East Perth and were still without imports Rob Brandenberg and Courtney Belger. The Buccs were starting their season and made a statement in the end with the 35-point victory.

Speaking of statements, Dwayne Benjamin sure made one in his SBL debut with Geraldton finishing the night with 33 points, seven assists and five rebounds shooting 12-of-18 from the floor and 3-of-5 from deep.

Matthew Hancock was also influential with 23 points and four assists.

Mo Barrow added 16 points, 12 rebounds and six assists as well for the Buccs with Jackson Hussey contributing 13 points, 10 board and six assists.

Alex Ducas also added nine points, Aaron Ralph nine and James Paringatai eight against the team he initially was going to play with in 2017.

Theron Pinker was equal top-scorer for the Eastern Suns with 16 points along with 16 points and six rebounds from Brighton Pass. Ryan Blanchett contributed 15 points and Nathan Drown 14.

The game of the night without doubt was at Joondalup in a rematch from last year's grand final. There might be personnel changes but the rivalry remains strong and the teams delivered a terrific contest.

Despite the eight less minutes this season, both still scored over 100 points and it was tight all night but it was the Wolfpack who prevailed by three points on their home floor against the defending champions.

Captain Seb Salinas showed he's got plenty left to give with 22 points for the Wolves with Richard Ross adding 16 points off the bench.

Trian Iliadis finished with 15 points and five assists, Rob Huntington 15 points and five boards, Damian Matacz 12 points and six rebounds, and the other new import Wade Guerin just the five points and five boards.

The Cougars have a new coach in Adam Nener and plenty of new faces including Jalen Billups who had 26 points and 13 rebounds in his SBL debut. Gavin Field returned from his elbow injury for 20 points, 10 boards and six assists.

Seva Chan is also back with the Cougars this year and had 15 points and four assists while Lochlan Cummings contributed 14 points and seven rebounds, and Jaarod Holmes 14 points.

The Slammers and Lightning both made their first appearances of the season in Eaton on Saturday. It was another tight affair too late in the piece. Lakeside appeared in control heading into the fourth quarter but South West poured in 30 points to 14, but just fell two points short.

Lakeside's new imports were both impressive with James Padgett finishing with 21 points and five rebounds and Devon Atkinson putting up 18 points, eight assists, four boards and three steals.

Returning championship winner Darrell Morgan also showed he will be a handy signing with 19 points and five rebounds for the Lightning. Corey Shervill also had 11 points and Daniel Grida nine to go with eight boards.

Tre Nichols did all he could to try and lift the Slammers to the opening round with 34 points. Michael Lay made his Slammers debut and SBL return with 20 points, six rebounds and three assists but they were missing Brian Voelkel.

Travis Durnin finished with 10 points and eight rebounds, and Clive Weeden seven points and 10 boards.

The Tigers were the great improvers of 2016 pushing the Wolves to three games in the semi finals and they started the season on a winning note with a 14-point win over the Magic at home.

Willetton was without Ray Turner as well but had plenty of other weapons with Kyle Armour coming up huge with 27 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Jay Bowie added 24 points, seven rebounds and five assists for the Tigers while Damien Scott finished with 14 points and seven boards, and Nic Cody nine points and nine rebounds.

The young Magic fought hard led by veteran big man Taylor Mullenax with 27 points and 11 rebounds.

Ricky Kreklow added 16 points, eight assists and seven rebounds with Chad Simpson contributing 11 points.

Round 1 of the Men's SBL will conclude on Sunday with the East Perth Eagles playing the Goldfields Giants at Morley and the Lakeside Lightning hosting the Geraldton Buccaneers.

FRIDAY NIGHT ROUND 1 MEN'S SBL RESULTS
East Perth Eagles 92 defeated Kalamunda Eastern Suns 75
Rockingham Flames 77 lost to Perth Redbacks 102
Perry Lakes Hawks 87 lost to Stirling Senators 94

SATURDAY NIGHT ROUND 1 MEN'S SBL FIXTURES
Perth Redbacks 78 defeated Goldfields Giants 60
Kalamunda Eastern Suns 84 lost to Geraldton Buccaneers 119
Joondalup Wolves 104 defeated Cockburn Cougars 101
South West Slammers 82 lost to Lakeside Lightning 84
Willetton Tigers 87 defeated Mandurah Magic 73

SUNDAY ROUND 1 MEN'S SBL FIXTURES
East Perth Eagles v Goldfields Giants – Morley Sport and Recreation Centre 12pm
Lakeside Lightning v Geraldton Buccaneers – Lakeside Recreation Centre 2pm

Photo by Vikki Hile