The Perth Redbacks struck their best form of the season on Saturday night in the NBL1 West Women’s Division to defeat the Perry Lakes Hawks at Bendat Basketball Centre and make it consecutive wins with the 23-point victory away from home.
The two teams had already done battle earlier in the season at Belmont Oasis and on that occasion, it was Perry Lakes winning a thriller by four points.
From there, the Lady Hawks would lose their next five matches before stemming the tide and winning three in a row coming into hosting the Redbacks on Saturday evening.
It had been a rollercoaster ride for the Redbacks too who won three of four games after that loss to Perry Lakes before then suffering three consecutive defeats ahead of bouncing back to beat the South West Slammers 98-37 last Saturday night at Eaton Recreation Centre.
That all led into a tantalising match up on Saturday night at Bendat Basketball Centre with the Redbacks starting strongly to lead 20-13 by quarter-time against the Hawks.
Perry Lakes was able to work back on top during the second quarter outscoring Perth 23 points to 18 and it was a tight affair by half-time with the Redbacks narrowly leading 38-36.
It was a dominant second half showing from the Redbacks, though, as they outscored the Lady Hawks 18 points to eight in the third quarter, and then 26 points to 15 in the fourth.
That saw the Redbacks make it back-to-back wins with the 82-59 victory to improve to a 6-5 record on the season.
There were plenty of Redbacks players who came up huge to contribute to the win and none more so than captain Jess Jakens who delivered 25 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and two assists on shooting 12/17 from the floor.
Makailah Dyer continued her good form for another 21 points, three rebounds, three steals and two assists while Maddie Allen was a dominant all-round presence to threaten a triple-double with nine points, 17 rebounds and nine assists.
Raya Thompson also had 12 points, five assists, four steals and three rebounds, and Denielle Ashworth 10 points, three assists and three boards.