16 Jul NWBL Wrap Round 3
The Wollongong Roller Hawks finish Round 3 on top of the NWBL ladder but it’s the Darwin Salties who continue to impress, tallying three strong wins over the Perth Wheelcats. Meanwhile the Manly Wheel Eagles secured three important wins in their bid to remain in the Finals hunt.
In Perth, the Wheelcats went into the round on top of the ladder but were soon met by a Darwin Salties side already hitting its straps just one round into their 2025 campaign.
The Salties were far too strong for the home side in their opening encounter with a 93-36 win on Friday night.
Tom O’Neill-Thorne had 31 points and 12 assists while shooting 14/16 from the field while Jaylen Brown had 30 points and 14 rebounds as the Salties shot 65% from the field compared to the Wheelcats’ 24%.
It was a little closer in Game 2 but the Salties still won comfortably 77-45 with Brown leading the way with 23 points and 12 rebounds and 9 assists which he backed up in the final game on Saturday night with another near triple double with 36 points, 13 assists and 9 rebounds on the way to a 98-55 win.
Luis Edwardo Jasso was also among the points and rebounds with 16.7ppg and 8.0rpg but coach Tracy York ensured all her players found court time thanks to the big leads her stars established early in each game.
In two rounds the defending champions have quickly moved to a 5-1 record and into 4th place.
In Wollongong, the Roller Hawks secured three wins over the Southern Districts Spartans as they head into their bye in Round 4.
The Spartans pushed the home side hard in the first two games, played at Shellharbour City Stadium but the Roller Hawks found their groove in game 3 in front of a vocal crowd at the Illawarra Snakepit.
The Roller Hawks won 62-50, 62-46 and 71-39.
Coach Brett Stibners credited the team’s defence with ensuring a better scoreline in the final game.
“We had to work out a few things with defence and offence as well so I’m really happy with today’s game,” said Roller Hawks coach Brett Stibners.
“We had to adjust, they were shooting a lot of threes and at a high percentage so we had to get out earlier and harder, so we had to adjust with our defence that way and in offence they just sat in the key and we had to adjust again and not just come down and shoot the first shot.”
After the weekend, Spartans coach Tom Kyle stated that developing his team across the full forty minutes of a game was key.
“The first two were good. We’ve got a young side whilst we can’t put together four quarters. We can match them in those two or three quarters so now it’s a bit more about settling into a pattern.”
The Spartans turn their attention to Perth in round 4 and against another big line up.
“We’re not the biggest team out there but we want to be competitive, so we’ve got a lot of shooting potential out on the floor, they’re going to have to run at us, and once they do that we’ll try and attack the basket.”
In Brisbane, the Manly Wheel Eagles accounted for the Titans, winning by an average margin of 21.3 points to sit in third position. Emmanuel Fuentes Cervantes exploded for the Wheel Eagles on Friday night with a triple double that surpassed his efforts in Round 2, scoring 27 points, 25 rebounds and 11 assists. Cervantes would go on to score 35 points and 12 rebounds in Game 2 and 26 and 16 in Game 3.
For the home side, Peter Berry led the way with 13 points per game while Nikia Fa’atau averaged 10 points and 7 rebounds per game.
For Manly, the wins are important in maintaining their chances of making Finals while the Titans’ tasks against older and stronger line ups doesn’t ease up with a trip to Darwin in Round 4.
“We do train as one big squad, obviously they have their own patterns and plays and we do our own but generally we work together, we try to build the strength of the club as a unit,” added Kyle Snr.
“We’ve got a young side in the Titans, we’ve lost one of our youngest and brightest in Zac Uhr, broke his wrist so that takes them a little bit out of the picture as far as competitiveness.”
“Getting them together is probably our biggest challenge and how do we get that basketball IQ into the patterns of play that we need to execute.”
Photo Credit: @elyse.l.hudson