On the back of road trips last weekend against the East Perth Eagles and Rockingham Flames, the Redbacks were back on the road against the Mandurah Magic on Saturday night in Round 7 of the NBL1 West season.
It was a mixed night for the Perth Redbacks with the women coming away 67-58 victors against the Magic while a big night from Louis Timms wasn’t quite enough for the men who went down 82-74.
Starting with the women’s contest, and the Redbacks got off to a hot start away from home with 22 points to nine in the opening quarter against the Magic.
This was followed by a remarkable defensive performance in the second period where the Redbacks held the Magic to just four points for the entire 10 minutes while scoring another 18 points themselves to be well in control leading 40-13 at half-time.
To the credit of the Magic, they fought back valiantly after half-time on their home court to outscore the Redbacks 45 points to 27. That cut the final margin to nine points but the Redbacks still won 67-58 to improve to 4-2 on the season while the Magic are 2-4.
It was a turnover heavy game with 45 of them between the two teams, and neither team shot the ball particularly well with the Redbacks going 35 per cent from the floor and the Magic 32 per cent. But the Redbacks did enough for the win on the back of that huge opening half.
Makailah Dyer finished up with 23 points and six rebounds again for the Redbacks with Raya Thompson contributing 10 points, Maddie Allen nine points, six rebounds and four steals, and Denielle Ashworth eight points and six boards.
Bri Bailey ended up with another seven points, three steals and two assists, Jess Jakens four points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals, Shenae Hartree three points and three boards, and Sarah Allen three points and a steal.
On to the men’s contest and this loomed as a fascinating one with the Magic out to continue their vast improvement so far in the 2021 NBL1 West season.
Enjoying playing on their home court, Mandurah was able to start strongly to lead 25-16 by quarter-time. This advantage was extended in the second as they outscored the Redbacks 21 points to 17 to see them go into the half-time interval leading 46-33.
In a flip of the women’s game, it was the Redbacks men who had to mount a second-half fightback. And fight back they did with 24 points to 17 for the period to be within just six points of the Magic by three-quarter-time.
This margin was only 3 points with around 2 minutes to play but unfortunately, that was as close as the Redbacks got. Mandurah would run out 82-74 winners in the end and improve to a 3-3 record for the season. Meanwhile, the Redbacks slipped to 2-4 with this loss.
Louis Timms is proving to be an outstanding pick up for the Redbacks for the 2021 NBL1 West season as he delivered another 27 points and seven rebounds on Saturday night in Mandurah.
Zac Gattorna is having a solid start to the season too with 20 points, four rebounds and four assists for the Redbacks while knocking down 3 of 6 from three-point territory.
Tevin Jackson also had 10 points and three rebounds, Kyden Edman seven points and two boards, and the all-time league assists leader Joel Wagner five points, nine assists and four rebounds.