THE Goldfields Giants and South West Slammers both made it two wins for Week 8 in the Men's SBL by recording road wins over the Cockburn Cougars and Kalamunda Eastern Suns on Sunday.

Both teams were coming off victories on Saturday night, and then on Sunday afternoon the Goldfields Giants defeated the Cockburn Cougars 99-96 and the South West Slammers downed the Kalamunda Eastern Suns 98-80.

Week 8 of the Men's SBL began on Friday night with the Joondalup Wolves beating the Stirling Senators 103-87 at Warwick Stadium and the Perth Redbacks defeating the Rockingham Flames 90-73 at Belmont Oasis.

It was then a night of upsets and thrillers on Saturday across the league with the Lakeside Lightning beating the Geraldton Buccaneers 91-84 at Active West Stadium, the Mandurah Magic beating the East Perth Eagles 107-96 at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre and the Willetton Tigers scored a remarkable double overtime 120-118 win over the Cockburn Cougars at Wally Hagan Stadium.

Then the Goldfields Giants got their double-header off to a winning start beating the Rockingham Flames 84-77 at Mike Barnett Sports Complex and the South West Slammers downed the Perry Lakes Hawks 82-69 at Eaton Recreation Centre.

Week 8 Saturday night Men's SBL results 
Week 8 Friday night Men's SBL results 
Week 8 Men's SBL Preview 
Wolfpack not afraid to change up to stay ahead of curve 
Senators need to maintain same high energy when full strength 

Sunday's Week 8 action began at Wally Hagan Stadium and it was the second thriller in less than 18 hours for the Cougars on their home floor.

Cockburn was coming off a heartbreaking double overtime loss to Willetton the previous night while Goldfields was on a high after its second win of the season winning in Rockingham.

The Giants managed to start well against the Cougars to lead by six points at quarter-time. They ended up holding on to that narrow advantage through the rest of the afternoon despite the best efforts of the Cougars to overhaul them.

With JB Pillard the dominant figure on Saturday night, it was Jacob Holmen's turn on Sunday for the Giants. The captain finished with 36 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots on shooting 13-of-26 from the field, 6-of-11 from long range and 4-of-6 at the free-throw line.

Pillard had a good impact for Goldfields as well finishing with 20 points and four rebounds with Brandon Holloway adding 11 points and six assists, Michael Exell nine points and eight rebounds and Miles Tierney nine points.

Perhaps most pivotal in Goldfields' win was them keeping Jalen Billups to just eight points and nine rebounds for Cockburn in 17 minutes of court time.

Gavin Field top-scored for the Cougars with 20 points, six assists and five rebounds with Lochlan Cummings contributing 14 points, Dan Thomas 14 points, nine assists and eight rebounds, Rhett Della 13 points and eight boards, and Steven Van Lit 11 points.

Then at Ray Owen Sports Centre, the Eastern Suns were playing their first game of the weekend and were unveiling new import Rob Brandenberg with the guard arriving following the completion of his season in the British Basketball League.

The Slammers were coming in off the high of beating the Hawks on Saturday night but it was also a short turnaround to come to Kalamunda and they were without experienced guard Michael Lay up against a team whose undoubted strength is their guard rotation.

While Brandenberg made his mark early on debut in the SBL with a three-pointer for Kalamunda, it was the Slammers who made the hot start with Clive Weeden dominant inside.

The Slammers raced to a 20-6 start but the Suns did well to stem the tide and by quarter-time trailed by just six points.

Things were then even with 24 points apiece through the second quarter but again the Slammers blew the game open to start the third quarter.

South West went on a 12-0 run to open the second half until Kerrod Horn hit a triple for the Suns five minutes in.

But that saw the Slammers open a match-winning advantage and they went on to score the 18-point win to back up the victory on Saturday night over the Hawks and improve to a 4-5 record on the season having won four of their last five games.

Clive Weeden was a dominant force inside for the Slammers finishing with 25 points, nine rebounds and three assists.

Slammers coach Charles Nix couldn’t be happier with the efforts of Weeden over the whole weekend.

"If we look at the entire weekend, Clive was outstanding. Last night his job on Brian Carlwell was next level," Nix said.

"He did his work early to get him out of position and he stayed down, and was very disciplined and I gave him the MVP because of his effort to stifle who could be the best big man in the league.

"Then today to come in and be able to dominate with a completely different look in the post was great for him, but more importantly it was great for the group to reward him."

Brian Voelkel was his main rival for best on court honours putting together a stunning all-round game made up of 14 points, 21 rebounds and 13 assists.

Tre Nichols finished with 19 points, seven steals and three rebounds while helping to do a terrific job to limit the impact of Courtney Belger for the Suns.

Travis Durnin contributed 13 points and nine rebounds for South West, Chris Douglas 12 points and six boards, and Teny Puot nine points.

Nix was delighted with the effort of the Slammers to perform well on a short turnaround after the win over Perry Lakes.

"I was probably more impressed with our ability to come in and bring that intensity on defence. It's a real challenge to come in particularly on a short turnaround and bring that intensity, particularly on defence, and I thought we were really good at the defensive end for sure," Nix said.

"We understand they are a talent offensive team so we know they are going to have runs. It's just about us being consistent throughout the whole game and I think we saw that in the end result.

"We were consistently getting to our spots and trying to expose them in the areas we thought we could. We knew they would hit some shots so it's identifying the runs and making sure if they hit a couple in a row, we get the stops we needed."

Despite shooting just 6-of-26 from the floor, Belger played all but two minutes for the Eastern Suns and finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals.

Billy Grey scored 13 points and had five rebounds for Kalamunda with Brighton Pass adding 13 points and seven boards, Kerrod Horn 11 points and Brandenberg 10 points in his first SBL appearance.

FRIDAY NIGHT ROUND 8 MEN'S SBL RESULTS
Stirling Senators 87 lost to Joondalup Wolves 103
Perth Redbacks 90 defeated Rockingham Flames 73

SATURDAY NIGHT ROUND 8 MEN'S SBL RESULTS
Geraldton Buccaneers 84 lost to Lakeside Lightning 91
South West Slammers 82 defeated Perry Lakes Hawks 69
East Perth Eagles 96 lost to Mandurah Magic 107
Cockburn Cougars 118 lost to Willetton Tigers 120
Rockingham Flames 77 lost to Goldfields Giants 84

SUNDAY ROUND 8 MEN'S SBL RESULTS
Cockburn Cougars 96 lost to Goldfields Giants 99
Kalamunda Eastern Suns 80 lost to South West Slammers 98

Photo by Belinda Pike (Croc Photography)