THE league-leading Willetton Tigers suffered just its fourth loss of the season at Willetton Basketball Stadium last Friday night, going down 82-73 to a talented and determined Perth Redbacks side in the State Basketball League.
The previous clash between these sides was at Belmont back on May 26, and that one ended with Jay Bowie crushing Redbacks hearts in overtime with a game-winner at the buzzer, and for the majority of this contest, it had a similar flavour, with two very tough and competitive teams going neck-and-neck all evening.
The score was close throughout, and with 3 minutes 30 seconds left in the final quarter it was locked at 71-71, but a pair of uncharacteristic misses at the free-throw line from Ray Turner, and then two more from Damien Scott, strongly dented the Tigers chances, while Redbacks’ big-man Michael Vigor landed some clutch baskets at the other end to get the Redbacks over the line.
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READ NOWTurner struggled to have his normal dominance around the paint, but still managed to put up 23 points and 14 rebounds before fouling out with two minutes to go, while Damien Scott added 18 points. Jay Bowie also struggled scoring the ball, with his 12 points well down on his regular numbers.
The Tigers were still without key rotation player Hayden Noordhoek, while captain and point-guard Kyle Armour was also absent again while overseas, and will be a welcome return next week.
The Redbacks were led by import Lee Roberts who finished with 29 points and nine rebounds, while Ben Smith and Marshall Nelson both shot the ball very well to end up with 17 and 16 points respectively.
Shawn Redhage played his first game after being overseas for five weeks, and looked understandably jet-lagged and rusty, adding just three points after only arriving back the previous day.
Speaking after the game, Tigers coach Stephen Black said he was overall happy with his teams efforts, but pointed to a lack of ball movement and missed opportunities down-the-stretch as reasons for the loss.
“I thought we did a good job defensively in the second half, it was everything we needed to do, we just didn’t stay with the ball movement that we were looking for and talking about, we just didn’t get it done.
“We missed four free-throws with three minutes to go when we were one down, we were in the game. That’s where you wanna be, we were right there, but we just didn’t finish it off. That is disappointing, but you want to put yourself in that position and I think if we do that again we’ll be alright,” said Black.
Despite the loss, the Tigers (19-4) still remain two wins clear in first place on the ladder with three games remaining before the playoffs.
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