AFTER an uninspiring first half the Willetton Tigers blew Sunday's Men's SBL clash apart in the third quarter before just managing to survive a stirring fightback from the South West Slammers for the four-point win.

The game never hit any great heights in the first half at Willetton Basketball Stadium, but Willetton blew it open to start the third quarter and led by as much as 20 points late in the term.

But the Slammers were able to turn the tide and were really rolling late in the game on the big game of Tre Nichols turning up the tempo, Brian Voelkel lifting and a breakout effort from big man Chris Douglas.

That set up a frantic finish but the Tigers held on for the 77-73 victory to close out the round.

Week 7 of the Men's SBL began back on Friday night with the Perry Lakes Hawks beating the Perth Redbacks 90-85 and the Willetton Tigers defeating the Rockingham Flames 84-68.

Then on Saturday night, the Geraldton Buccaneers beat the Kalamunda Eastern Suns 91-81, The Stirling Senators downed the Goldfields Giants 82-79, the Perth Redbacks defeated the Cockburn Cougars 107-89, the Joondalup Wolves kept the Mandurah Magic winless 95-81 and the Lakeside Lightning bounced back to beat the East Perth Eagles 92-78.

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Sunday's clash at Willetton Basketball Stadium never got going for whatever reason in the first half with the Tigers taking a narrow 29-24 advantage into the main break.

But Willetton got going to start the period catching the Slammers unawares despite the frustrations of coach Charles Nix who was forced into an early time-out.

The Tigers raced to a 13-4 run in just over three minutes to start the third period and just before three quarter-time the lead of the home team had grown to 20 points.

It was still 18 heading into the fourth period but the Slammers weren’t done with yet.

It was Nichols lifting his game up another level that turned the tide for the Slammers, but it wasn’t just him. Some big plays inside by Douglas and ferocious rebounding from Voelkel and full-court plays that he made turned the tide as well.

Once it was time for Nichols to deliver he showed why he is unstoppable at full flight with his remarkable athleticism and quickness.

The Slammers had picked up all the momentum to get within a point with 47 seconds left on the back of a three-point play from Nichols along with another basket from him, Clive Weeden and Douglas in the previous 90 seconds.

But the Tigers weren’t going to hand over the win either. Damien Scott stood up to make two dagger three-pointers in the last five minutes to help keep the Slammers at bay. The second was a remarkable turnaround three to beat the shot clock in front of the visitor's bench.

South West still had a shot late with the ball and Willetton leading 75-73 after Hayden Noordhoek hit 1-of-2 at the line. Nix trusted Nichols to go down and push the ball and make another play as he had done all fourth quarter.

It didn’t quite pay off this time and the Tigers were able to grab the defensive rebound and then Noordhoek iced the game with a breakaway layup as time expired.

Ray Turner's battle inside all afternoon with Slammers veteran Clive Weeden was a fascinating one. Weeden did get in foul trouble in the third quarter which hurt his team's chances of keeping Turner in check and his fouling out in the dying minutes was costly too.

But Weeden did well to limit Turner's impact even if the former league MVP did still have 24 points and nine rebounds for the Tigers while shooting 9-of-15 from the floor.

Damien Scott's 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting from three-point territory were firstly crucial in the Tigers building their lead and then in securing the win.

Jay Bowie added 16 points and 11 rebounds for Willetton while Hayden Noordhoek finished with 11 points and four boards.

Tre Nichols finished with 22 points for the Slammers and his fourth quarter in particular gave his team a chance at what would have been a stunning comeback victory.

Emerging big man Chris Douglas delivered a breakout performance for the Slammers with 16 points and four rebounds on the back shooting 7-of-8 from the field even making a desperation three to beat the shot clock.

Weeden battled manfully against Turner to finish with 10 points and eight rebounds with Brian Voelkel narrowly missing another triple-double with another nine points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.

Michael Lay also had his moments and finished with eight points, six rebounds and two assists for South West.

Slammers coach Charles Nix was obviously not happy his team was 20 points down in the first place due to their third quarter, but was proud of their fight to give themselves a chance to win at the end.

"We're a new group but we've got plenty of heart and we work really hard. I think we did well to identify what was going wrong and we made the adjustments we needed to, but again it was just too little too late," Slammers said.

"You get yourselves into that sort of hole and there might have been a timeout I could have called after the free-throw, but I felt like we had some momentum and that obviously went the other way and then they got something in transition.

"It's a tough way to lose a game. We put ourselves in a position to win and couldn’t execute when it counted. Now we have to regroup and focus on Perry Lakes next week."

But looking back, Nix can't help but identify that it was those opening few minutes of the third quarter that cost his team.

"I couldn’t really put my finger on anything in particular, but they came out with a bit more intent in that third quarter and they were really good on transition pushing the ball up. And they were hitting shots," Nix said.

"In the first half both teams I think were pretty ordinary shooting percentage wise, but then they came out and hit some shots to create some shots. They scored 13 points in the first three minutes is too many, considering they only had 29 at half-time."

FRIDAY NIGHT ROUND 7 MEN'S SBL RESULTS
Perth Redbacks 85 lost to Perry Lakes Hawks 90
Rockingham Flames 68 lost to Willetton Tigers 84

SATURDAY NIGHT ROUND 7 MEN'S SBL RESULTS
East Perth Eagles 78 lost to Lakeside Lightning 92
Joondalup Wolves 95 defeated Mandurah Magic 81
Cockburn Cougars 89 lost to Perth Redbacks 107
Geraldton Buccaneers 91 defeated Kalamunda Eastern Suns 81
Goldfields Giants 79 lost to Stirling Senators 82

SUNDAY ROUND 7 MEN'S SBL RESULTS
Willetton Tigers 77 defeated South West Slammers 73

Photo by June Halliday