ROUND 4 - SATURDAY NIGHT RECAP

ROUND 4 – SATURDAY NIGHT RECAP

NBL1 WEST – 2021 MEN'S SEASON

JOONDALUP WOLVES 84 defeated KALAMUNDA EASTERN SUNS 61

The Joondalup Wolves kept their perfect start to the NBL1 West season going on Saturday evening with a 23-point victory against the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

The Wolfpack opened up the season back in Round 1 with a 76-55 victory against the East Perth Eagles also on their home floor at HBF Arena as they prepared to host an Eastern Suns team on Saturday making their first appearance in NBL1 West.

The Suns did well to open up a three-point lead by quarter-time and they still went into the half-time break on top of the Wolves 37-34.

They had thrown the gauntlet right down to the Wolfpack but couldn’t quite maintain the rage through the second half with the Wolves working their way on top to outscore Kalamunda 50 points to 24 after half-time to come away with the 84-61 victory.

The longer the game went the more the Wolves' dominance on the glass came into play and they finished with 65 rebounds for the game to 44 from Kalamunda, with 19 to nine of those at the offensive end.

Former Wildcat, Cockburn Cougar and Perry Lake Hawk Lochlan Cummings was impressive for the Wolfpack with 18 points and three assists while hitting 4/9 from three-point territory.

Jonathan Wade showed he'll bring plenty to Joondalup this year too with 18 points, 13 rebounds, three assists and two steals while Joel Vaiangina contributed 13 points and 10 boards, and Rob Huntington nine points and six rebounds.

"some guys get hot... it's always good when the threat is coming from different players, the defence is on their feet, you don't know who is going to score next. We really locked in on defence, espcially in the second half..." Added Jonathan Wade

"...we needed to go to our zone... teams are going to look at it and try work it out, so our man has to get better but it's 2 games in a row now we've had to revert to the zone in the second half to really generate some stops... we use it for that reason to try and change the tempo of the game, to try and give us some transition baskets and so far it's working" Added Men's Head Coach, Andrew Summerville. 

NBL1 WEST – 2021 WOMEN'S SEASON

JOONDALUP WOLVES 78 defeated KALAMUNDA EASTERN SUNS 65

The Joondalup Wolves continued their impressive start to the NBL1 West season beating the Kalamunda Eastern Suns at home on Saturday night by 13 points.

The Lady Wolfpack won the championship in the West Coast Classic a year ago and now have started off life in the NBL1 West impressively backing up their opening round win against the East Perth Eagles by overrunning Kalamunda at HBF Arena on Saturday night.

The Suns certainly took it right up to the Wolves as well turning a four-point deficit at quarter-time into a 37-30 lead at the main break on the back of scoring 24 points to 13 during the second period.

But the Lady Wolfpack were able to turn things around in the second half to dominate proceedings outscoring Kalamunda 48 points to 28 to end up winning 78-65 and keeping their winning start to the NBL1 West season rolling.

The number of weapons and contributors Joondalup has was again key to their victory with Kayla Steindl top-scoring on the night with 24 points and 14 rebounds.

Nes'eya Williams added 12 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals for the Wolfpack with Amber Land delivering 11 points and nine rebounds, Chelsea Belcher 10 points and three steals, and Tia Ucich eight points, seven boards, three assists and two steals.

"The beginning of the game we were working really well together, taking advantage of our mis-matches and our bigs work really well together. They (Eastern Suns) started throwing that press at us... we weren't setting up our offense... we got a few plays at the end that bought us back into it." Added Kayla Steindl. 

"... we'll work and make some adjustments because today we weren't where we wanted to be, it was nice to win but we have got a lot of improvement to do." Added Women's Head Coach, Charles Nix.