05 Aug NWBL Round 6 Wrap
If the Round 6 matchup between second placed Wollongong and third placed Perth is a taste of what’s to come in this year’s WBA Finals, audiences are in for a treat in the final weekend of August.
The Wheelcats and Roller Hawks fought out three absolute thrillers starting with a win to Perth on Saturday morning. The home side managed to stave off an epic comeback by Wollongong which saw them charge back from down 17, only for the Wheelcats to hold on 79-78.
Game 2 on Saturday night had exactly the same script with Perth leading by 18 before the Roller Hawks again mounted a comeback. This time getting a 86-85 win.
Game 3 was equally thrilling with the Roller Hawks winning 103-98.
It leaves Perth in third place and while their Finals spot is secure, they will watch on next week to see who their opponent will be.
That question may not be answered until the last game of the regular season. Red Dust currently sit in fourth but have the Spartans and Wheel Eagles still within reach.
Manly would need to win all three games against Darwin and hope Red Dust go winless against Wollongong. The Spartans would also need the Heelers to lose their remaining games but have three much more winnable games against stablemates the Titans.
The Spartans secured two valuable wins over Manly that started on Friday night with a 78-59 win.
Saturday afternoon saw Manly make the adjustment to lead but scores remained close until momentum shifted late in the third with some timely long-range shooting by the Spartans. Spartans securing a 71-64 win.
“We are a team that doesn’t rely on just one scorer, everyone can score 15-20 points on any given day,” said Spartans import Augustin Alejos Alonso.
“Binns and Eithen played really well all weekend, but so did Jordan and Jake. Can’t forget about the guys that do all the dirty work, like Hayden, Brayden or Mitch. They make our job much easier.”
“The main focus for this round was to be aggressive defensively and play our transition game, finding our shooters to get us the spacing we needed.”
Manly bounced back on Sunday with a 67-62 win.
“I think today we rushed our shots too much, we didn’t start the game with the intensity we needed and we focused too much on external things that were out of our control.”
Alonso also took responsibility for the loss.
“Shooting 4/14 from the free throw line is not acceptable, and that probably cost us the game, but all we can do is get back to the lab and work on it.”
Alonso says the Spartans are aware of the finals equation but can only control what they can control.
“That has definitely been spoken about, but we need to focus on our next round against the Titans.”
“Don’t underestimate them because they haven’t won a game yet. We train with them every day and we know what they are capable of.”
“Whatever happens in other games is not up to us, so we need to focus in us.”
In Thornbury, the Red Dust Heelers found themselves undermanned and under siege from the Darwin Salties.
Missing Lachie Dalton and Kane Downie to the 3X3 World Championships and Mitch Bond who has departed the team early to link up with US college team, Red Dust were on their heels early as Darwin raced to a 26-14 advantage at quarter time, the Salties continued to build their lead at a near 2:1 ratio, which saw them win 90-54.
Darwin took Game 2 75-40 and Game 3, 88-61.
Jaylen Brown continued his great form averaging 33 points, 12.3 rebounds, 9,3 assists 4.3 steals per game.
Red Dust travel to Wollongong in the final round while Darwin host the Manly Wheel Eagles..