Slammers back on track
The Collie Crane Hire South West Slammers have quickly put their season back on track with two big wins against the Rockingham Flames and the Perry Lakes Hawks.
The Slammers, who suffered their first loss at the hands of Joondalup last weekend, returned to their brilliant best on Friday and Saturday night.
Despite being without starter Trent Worthington for the entire weekend due to the big man’s wedding, the Slammers looked as good as ever.
On Friday night the Slammers started with an offensive flurry, but a lack of defensive pressure had the Flames in the match and playing-coach Ty Harrelson seeing red.
After a passionate address the Slammers flicked the switch and began to dominate, dousing the Flames in emphatic fashion 123-106.
Three Slammers passed 20 points, in Tre Nichols (29), Harrelson (26) and Weeden (24) as the Slammers showed superior ball handling skills and passing to take the Flames down with ease.
Little man Wade Hitchcock came off the bench in the second half to have a massive impact, scoring four three-pointers from eight attempts on his way to 15 points.
Once again Brian Voelkel was a monster on the boards, but on Friday night he was well supported by Weeden and Jordan Hickert (six each).
On Saturday night the Slammers were almost a completely different team, with Hitchcock, Worthinton and Paddy Phillips all missing from the line-up.
Harrelson was a dominant force, scoring 36 points as the Slammers won 106-86.
Weeden and Nichols were again in a scoring mood, taking more than 20 points each while Voelkel was almost glued to the backboards, bringing down 19 rebounds.
Defencively Harrelson would be pleased with his side as they once again showed great poise and experience, holding the Hawks to under 100 points and only two players reached 20 points or more.
The Collie Crane Hire South West women’s side are on a four game losing streak, after going down to the Rockingham Flames and Perry Lakes Hawks on the weekend.
Ahead of the massive double header the girls had promised coaching staff an improved performance, but the undefeated Flames showed their class right from the start at the Eaton Recreation Centre on Friday night defeating the Slammers 95 to 64.
Despite the best efforts of co-captain Kate Fielding and import Deonica McCormick, the Slammers were never in the game and both sides had decided it was over at three-quarter time by clearing their benches.
The game started horrifically for the Slammers with the newly signed Perth Lynx guard Samantha Whitcombe getting off to a brilliant start and before the home side knew it she had 15 points by quarter time.
This was not the end of the misery for the Slammers, who were unable to get back into the contest and were defined by their inability to hit their shots from the court.
The damning statistic for the girls was the shooting percentage of just 31.9 per cent, with Fielding and McCormick the chief offenders as both shot at 28 per cent for the night.
The only highlight for the Slammers on Friday night was the return of Rebecca Donovan, who came on after half-time to have an impact as she scored 17 points.
On Saturday night the girls travelled to the State Basketball Centre to take on the Hawks and they put in a much better performance, going down by just four points.
A six-point second quarter was the killer for the girls, as the Hawks ran away with the match to win 61 to 57.
Perry Lakes star Megan McKay was the best on court scoring 22 points, while former Slammer Lauren Jeffers grabbed 12 rebounds.
For the Slammers it was the two imports in McCormick and Patricia Bright who stared, with both scoring 17 points in the narrow loss.
