This Weekly WABL Wrap is brought to you by Baskin Robbins East Victoria Park (828a Albany Highway, East Victoria Park). Why not take the opportunity to show them your support? Head into the store for some cool and yummy ice-cream action after your game!
Here’s how our Round 6 WABL games went!
Women’s results and coach comments
12 RED – Joshua Wallace
Won against Joondalup Wolves 57-33
Josh loved seeing:
- We were missing one of our players yesterday, who is a very good defender and scorer, and all the girls stepped up in her absence.
- Michelle Ninyette’s frontcourt pressure was fantastic. She caused a lot of turnovers through this and finished with a game-high 22 points because of her defence.
- Sienna Duong and Anna Zittrisch showed lots of improvement in their decision making on the offensive end of the court.
- Leeshar and Mafa’s Tuialii’s rim protection and rebounding were the best I have seen from them in my two years of working with them.
- Sasha Nona made her first start in WABL and did an amazing job on the court.
12 WHITE – John Care
Won against Warwick 29-18
John loved seeing:
- The girls’ defensive pressure was really good today in a tough game. Warwick put a lot of pressure on in the full-court press which made it hard for us at times but the girls managed to finish well.
- Imogen Reiger-Ross had a great game providing extra lift with rebounds and put backs and scored 10 points.
- Mila Reyes’ defensive pressure was fantastic from start to finish racking up a number of steals.
14 RED – Bri Bailey
Lost to Kalamunda Eastern Suns 58-22
Bri loved seeing:
- The girls kept running and pushing even though injuries and fouls were troublesome for us.
- Jenna Jackson showed constant effort offensively and defensively.
14 WHITE – Haylee Smyth
Won against Joondalup Wolves Green 37-33
Hayley loved seeing:
- Our team’s improvement in several aspects and how we all came ready to play.
- Everyone played their role for the team no matter how big or small.
14 BLACK – Zac Belton
Won against Joondalup Wolves 55-37
Zac loved seeing:
- The girls’ defensive intensity was fantastic, deflections and interceptions were a strong factor in our defensive presence. Our transition game has slowly been improving and the girls are working hard together.
- Tahlia Bentley’s defensive intensity once again was a key factor for us making it extremely difficult for the opposition to even get the ball up the court.
- Gabby Manalo’s defensive intensity has improved dramatically over the past few weeks and she led the way as our highest scoring – she really slowed herself down and allowed the game to come to her.
- Olivia Mirco worked exceptionally hard this week to apply pressure in the full court she had 8 points off turnovers and assisted on another 4 attempts.
16 RED – Adrian Warner
Lost to Warwick Senators 86-51
Adrian loved seeing:
- That even though we started slowly and were well behind at the first break, we recovered well in the 2nd quarter and matched them on the scoreboard during that period. We had a great run to open the second half to close within 10 points, forced them into an early time out and looked like we would claw our way back into the game. Unfortunately, we couldn’t maintain this level and the last bit of the game got away from us.
- Joia Kowaleski played a great game at both ends. She demonstrated composure and solid decision making and applied our team rules consistently. As a consequence, she played a lot of minutes. After a slow start, Jasmin Wynn got on top of the Senators’ opposing big to the extent that said opposing big gave up trying to get into the keyway and was happy to throw up low percentage shots from well outside. Sagal Elmi contributed great energy for the entire game and got a lovely compliment from the Senators coach about her game at the end.
16 WHITE – Anne-Marie and Bryn Arnold
Lost to Perry Lakes 99-31
Anne-Marie and Bryn loved seeing:
- We played the undefeated Tigers and although it was tough we showed in patches that we can compete. I thought the first quarter was very competitive.
- Issy Woods again brought great energy on both ends of the floor and finished with 15 points.
18 RED – Kirsty Oehlers
Lost to Perry Lakes 62-56
Kirsty loved seeing:
- Kerry Hayden, Kaja Todorovic and Mickayla Little all had very strong offensive games and some excellent team defence was played in the second half. Jayda Corunna played explosively on defence and made the most of her opportunity on the court as our development player.
Men’s results and coach comments
12 RED – Brad Dowd
Won against Joondalup White 76-42
Brad loved seeing:
- Our full-court defence and ability to run the fast break. Our team recorded only 7 turnovers and 17 fouls for the game which was excellent given the intensity with which we pressed in defence and the pace we ran the fast break in offense.
- Being one big man down, Jaden Exeter really stepped up and filled his shoes with 25 points, 16 rebounds, 4 blocks and only 2 fouls. Zak Magdy continued with his fine shooting form – he’s averaged nearly 60% from the field in his last three games.
12 BLACK – Ron Flores
Lost to Perry Lakes 69-55
Ron loved seeing:
- Our team came out with the right intent: hustling for every opportunity to make a play on the ball offensively and defensively.
- Luke Trevenen had a great game with his effort and intensity.
12 WHITE – Dylan Vilardi
Won against Perth Redbacks Grey 49-30
Dylan loved seeing:
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- The way every player helped keep each other’s head in the game. When one person would drop their head, someone would make sure they lifted it right back up. Also our hustle back on transition defence.
- Parker Dunstan started the game incredibly well and carried that effort throughout the game. His role was to find a body, box out and then find the ball. He did an exceptional job of this. In fact, the first 6 points of the game were from him, all off second-chance points.
12 GREY – Jacob Kelly
Lost to Perth Redbacks White 49-30
14 RED – Colin Driscoll
Lost to Warwick Senators 93-28
Colin loved seeing:
- The way we consistently got back on defence and never stopped encouraging one another
- Evan Berson had a couple of delightful dimes
14 BLACK – Ash Brian
Won against Kalamunda 59-51 in OT
Ash loved seeing:
- After a disappointing four regular-time quarters, we pulled together and played a fantastic OT to close it out.
- We practised a new offense at training this week, which involved our 5-man playing quarterback at the top of the key. Romain Suraweera single-handedly won the game for us in OT by playing that roll with composure and delivering 3-4 passes to Andrew Cook under the ring to seal the game.
14 WHITE – Al Lackovic
Won against Redbacks Grey 68-31
Al loved seeing:
- Defensive team focuses on pressure, contain & shell.
- Energy & intensity levels were outstanding
- Everyone understood & executed their roles and responsibilities
- Achieved our Rebound, T/O, and FGA targets.
- Defensive talk is improving each week.
- Watching the players delivering team unity, respect, support and constant encouragement towards each other ensures the team runs like a well-oiled machine.
- Zac Anfuso’s defensive pressure, ability to create deflections and relentless work rate on both ends of the floor.
- Jack Saliacus’s understanding of timing in offense, execute pick and rolls and crash the boards.
- Kade Mendes’s defensive intensity, diving on every loose ball & great decision making in offense.
- Romeo Lyszkowicz’s defensive soul reading ability, boxing out & rebounding hustle setting up our guards to pick the cherry rebounds.
- Jerry Davies & Hamish Gibson’s causing twin tornado havoc with pure defensive intensity setting up our transition offense.
- Maksim Lackovic’s two weeks in a row in leading assists, pulling in the second most rebounds and ability to control game tempo and make adjustments in play.
- Samuel Pierce’s relentless work rate against bigs, creating space and constantly making reads over rules.
14 GREY – Alex Maude
Lost to Redbacks White 68-31
Alex loved seeing:
- Hustle on defence
- Applying full court, deny defence
- Good shot selection
- Good offensive ball movement
- Fighting hard for rebounds
- Griffin Williams-Antulov – did not stop fighting in the key for rebounds. Any mistake he made he fought to get the ball back
- Murphy Martin – great aggression on offense and really good on defence blocking numerous shots
- Cleon Ryder – applied pressure in the front court which resulted in him getting numerous steals
16 RED – Luke Notley
Won against Rockingham 68-64
Luke loved seeing:
- We never gave up. After being down 24-41 down well into the 3rd, it was a mammoth defensive effort collectively to keep Rockingham to only another 23 points for the rest of the game, whilst we poured on another 44 points.
- Aiden Cannington and Zviko Tinayenda did a fantastic job putting ball pressure on their guards defensively. Malik (Iceman) Powell hit some key free throws at the end of the game to cement the game win.
16 BLACK – Bevan Rankin
Lost to Warwick Senators Green 85-75
Bevan loved seeing:
- Our defensive transition was excellent and as a team, our collective effort was also excellent
- Kade Macmillan was consistent on offense with 21 points.
- Sam Burnett was tremendous on the defensive boards and provided a massive spark in the first half.
16 WHITE – Mark Edman
Won against Willetton 72 to 61
Mark loved seeing:
- The way we smashed it on the defensive end. Holding a pressing team to five points in the first quarter was amazing.
- Overall, this win was a massive team effort
16 GREY – Andre Colley
Lost to East Perth Eagles 83-73
Andre loved seeing:
- Our communication and focus
18 RED – Gavin Burnett
Lost to Joondalup Wolves 97-73
Gavin loved seeing:
- We showed great resilience in the first half where we were able to match the Wolves’ intensity to enter the break down by just 1 point. We reduced our turnover count compared to previous games, and ended up forcing the opposition to commit 26 turnovers – seven more than we did.
- This week it was a couple of our bench players that were able to spark the team into a comeback after falling behind in the first half. Ryan Duke-Yonge continues to improve each week with a game-high VPS of 1.64, including 3 steals, 6 points and zero turnovers. Riley Burnett finished with a strong double double of 10 points, 12 rebounds to go with 3 steals and 2 assists (VPS 1.52). Harper Gadsby was solid with 10 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds. Owen Pang worked hard in defence all game and delivered 9 points, three boards and delivered 5 assists (VPS 1.20) while Vic Komaiya had 17 points, 3 boards and 5 assists (VPS 1.5). Tobey Martin dropped 10 points and delivered 3 assists and 1 steal with zero turnovers. Mitch Nixon delivered 4 blocks and 3 assists (VPS 1.29) For the third week in a row we were level at the half before falling away, which is something we will strive to improve on as a group this week. Adam Stanley and Cooper Mason enjoyed more court time this week and worked hard in defence delivering some of the best plus/minus results of the team
18 WHITE – Simon Daff
Won against Hills Raiders 72 to 62
Simon loved seeing:
- Our half-court defence in the second half was first class. It won us the game with our talk and switching on D. We gapped and protected the paint well.
- Rory Charles had a great all-round game with his rebounding hustle and ability to push the fast break. He finished with 18 points.
18 GREY – Carlos Uribe
Won against Cockburn Cougars 73-70
Carlos loved seeing:
- How we managed the pressure a lot better than previous games – it was a close game from the very beginning and the last 5 minutes were very intense and defensive. Scoring was also much better than previous games
- Luis Uribe was the best rebounder in the team with 14 in total and scored 18 points. Abdullahi Mohamedhashi also had 13 rebounds and 9 points. Jafari Davison had an amazing defensive game with 5 steals and great running
20 RED – David Swaby
Lost to Warwick Senators Green 80-76
Dave loved seeing:
- Our resilience and passion to keep fighting.
- I thought everyone who showed up gave great effort and fought hard. Lachlan Bertram kept good scoreboard pressure on their defence with his scoring efforts.
20 BLACK – Luke Simonette
Lost to Joondalup Wolves 78-71
Luke loved seeing:
- Our team produced a consistent, 40-minute effort on both ends. Defensively we boxed out adequately and had good talk, intensity and help positioning. We also showed great patience on the offensive, getting some good looks. O and D trans were at a high level
- Tyler Hardy – great shot selection
- Caleb Kingston – energy coming off the bench
- Steady Eddie Farquharson – controlled the tempo well