THERE were four big games in the Women's SBL on Saturday with the Perth Redbacks opening their accounts for 2017 and the South West Slammers, Joondalup Wolves and Stirling Senators recording home victories.

The round got underway on Friday night with the Lakeside Lightning beating the Kalamunda Eastern Suns 76-60 at Lakeside Recreation Centre and the Perry Lakes Hawks downing the Cockburn Cougars 66-61 at Wally Hagan Stadium.

Week 3 Friday night Women's SBL results 

Then on Saturday night, the South West Slammers beat the East Perth Eagles 69-65 in a thriller while the Joondalup Wolves defeated the Rockingham Flames 78-69, the Stirling Senators beat the Cockburn Cougars 86-76 and the Perth Redbacks downed the Kalamunda Eastern Suns 80-54.

The Slammers and Eagles were the two strugglers in the Women's SBL last year battling over the wooden. But both have shown reason for great improvement in 2017 and that led to a tremendous contest at Eaton Recreation Centre on Saturday night.

A Haylee DeSousa triple for East Perth kept things interesting late in the piece but Raya Thompson, Brittany Hodges and Courtney Bayliss all did enough at the line to see the Slammers holding on for the four-point victory.

Thompson was the star of the night for the Slammers with 24 points and four rebounds on 8-of-13 shooting from the field and 8-of-9 from the stripe.

Bayliss added 13 points and 10 rebounds with Hodges contributing eight points and 11 boards, and Tori Dugan eight points and five assists.

DeSousa had a strong game for East Perth too finishing with 22 points with Jodee Sontay contributing 11 points and 10 rebounds, Brianna Fisher 10 points, six rebounds and four assists, Amy Chinnery eight points and Emma Fisher eight points and six boards.

The Cougars headed to Warwick Stadium coming off a tight home loss to the Lady Hawks on Friday night still searching for their first win of 2017. But it wouldn’t come at the hands of Stirling with the Senators running out 10-point winners on their home floor.

Kisha Lee put in a remarkable performance for the Senators finishing with 41 points, 12 rebounds and five assists on shooting 18-of-27 from the floor and 3-of-4 from deep.

Amber Land narrowly missed a triple-double having 16 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and three steals for Stirling while Jasmine Martin added 10 points, five boards, four assists and three steals, and Taylor Roberts eight points.

Kersten Mitchell tried to match Lee blow for blow and ended up with 31 points and seven rebounds for the Cougars.

Brianna Moyes contributed 17 points, seven assists and six rebounds for Cockburn and Isabelle Miotti nine points, three steals and two rebounds.

Last year's minor premiers and grand finalists Joondalup maintained their unbeaten start to 2017 beating the Flames by nine points at home.

Klara Wischer had a massive impact in her first appearance of the season for the Lady Wolfpack with 35 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Nikita Martin added 11 points, 10 rebounds and three steals for the Wolves, Shani Amos nine points, eight assists, four steals and four rebounds, and Chelsea Belcher eight points and three boards.

The Flames weren’t at full strength but still fought hard led by 19 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals from Jacinta Bourne.

Tarsha Fletcher added 14 points for Rockingham, Dena English 14 points and Rhianna Kilsura seven.

Then at Ray Owen Sports Centre, two winless teams in the Eastern Suns and Redbacks locked horns but it was Perth who showed that things are starting to come together after a slow start to the new season.

It was a scrappy first half with both teams struggling to find some form after a difficult opening two weeks, but the Suns would have been buoyed by their big fourth quarter on Friday night against Lakeside.

The Redbacks managed to only lead by six at half-time at Kalamunda but they found their best form of the season in the second half with 48 points to 28 to end up winning by 26.

It was the evenness of the performance that was most impressive for the Redbacks with Rebecca Benson ending up with 17 points and four assists. Jess Jakens stepped up as well with 17 points, six rebounds and three assists on 8-of-9 shooting from the floor.

Ajay Jones returned to the Redbacks line-up and had 13 points, five rebounds and four steals while an under the weather Emilee Harmon still contributed 10 points and 10 boards. Lisa Wallbutton added seven points, 11 rebounds, four blocks and three assists.

Gabby Clayton played her first game on return to Perth as well and had six points, four rebounds and three assists in 15 minutes.

Rachel Brooks top-scored for the Eastern Suns with 15 points and nine rebounds while Tahlia Fejo contributed 12 points, seven boards and seven steals.

Redbacks coach Keith Horwood was happy to see his team start to click and show what they are capable of.

"We take a lot out of that second half in particular. I thought in the first half we were really scrappy and we still hadn’t got our game going, but something just seemed to click after that," Horwood said.

"Whether it was the combination that was on the floor that got us a couple of good looks I don’t know, but from then on it was a lot better.

"We were playing half-court defence in the first half too and picked it up to full-court in the second and that caused them to start turning the ball over which helped." 

FRIDAY NIGHT ROUND 3 WOMEN'S SBL RESULTS
Lakeside Lightning 76 defeated Kalamunda Eastern Suns 70
Cockburn Cougars 61 lost to Perry Lakes Hawks 66

SATURDAY NIGHT ROUND3 WOMEN'S SBL RESULTS
South West Slammers 69 defeated East Perth Eagles 65
Joondalup Wolves 78 defeated Rockingham Flames 69
Stirling Senators 86 defeated Cockburn Cougars 76
Kalamunda Eastern Suns 54 lost to Perth Redbacks 80

Photo by Vikki Hile