Slammers end season on hard fought loss

Friday night spelled a dim end to the regular season for the South West Slammers, as they faced the third place Willetton Tigers.

Slammers were back home and looking to end the season on a high after defeating the Cockburn Cougars by 23 points last round, knocking them out of playoffs contention.

They held the lead for the first two-and-a-half minutes of the game thanks to some solid shooting and rebounding from Jack Flynn and Ben Stevens, but the Tigers soon fought back, and took an 11 point lead into the first break.

The second quarter saw starting guard Buay Tuach fire up, as he so often does. He dropped 11 points for the quarter, including a huge dunk that got the healthy Eaton Rec Centre crowd up on their feet.

However, his Willetton counterpart Darnell Hoskins Jr responded with three buckets from beyond the arc. Together with scoring efforts from every Tiger on the floor, the visitors led by 26 points at the half.

Tuach remained on the court for the second half, playing all 40 minutes of the game to rack up an impressive 40 points at 58.62 per cent.

The only man to score more points this round was Kalamunda’s Joe Cook-Green – but he had two overtime periods to boost his total to 52 at, interestingly, the exact same percentage as Tuach.

Clive Weeden was the other main contributor for the Slammers, scoring 16 off the bench, while Ben Stevens pulled in a best-on-court 18 rebounds.

Willetton remained in control for the third, with Hoskins draining another four three-pointers on his way to 30 points for the night.

Former Slammers coach Mark Worthington made a big impression, this time against his old side as he added 17 points and five rebounds for the Tigers.

With a 32 point lead heading into the final term, Willetton cruised home. Despite the men in red outscoring them, the Tigers consolidated their third spot on the ladder, and a trip to Geraldton to take on the Buccaneers in the qualifying finals this weekend.

For the Slammers, it’s been another tough season. They finished 13th on a 14 place ladder with a record of 4 wins to 18 losses.

They finished two wins ahead of the Mandurah Magic, although their percentage was much lower.

The Slammers scored 1679 points for the season. The lowest of the league by a margin of 164. Keeping them off the bottom was their defence, which allowed 2174 points through – 94 less than Mandurah.

The next season of NBL1 West basketball kicks off in March of 2024.