Darren Austin - Slammers WSBL Head Coach

Well, here we are back at ERC for the first game of the Collie Crane Hire South West Slammers women's team for season 2014.

Tonight's game sees us up against the Kalamunda Eastern Suns. This game is the rematch of last years semi finals in which the Suns won in two games and advanced to the Grand Final.

This is the Suns second game of the season and they had a narrow loss to the tough Cockburn Cougars outfit so they will be looking to get the 'W' tonight. This Suns team are a very well coached, well balanced and have a solid core group of players. They like to play an up tempo offensive game but certainly can grind in the half court and look for the likes of Rintala and Ed-wards to dominate inside. They also like mix up their defence to keep opposing teams honest.

Players to watch out for are their leader and 3 point specialist AJ Jones, scoring/rebounding for-ward Jennie Rintala who is coming off a 22 point game and the ever improving Jess Edwards, who was a Waves squad player in the 2013-14 WNBL season.

The Collie Crane Hire South West Slammers team have been training since early January and are ready to play. We have a new look team this year. With the departures of Kara Hargreaves, Zoe Harper and Kim Sitzmann, we have lost a lot of experience. However, we have replaced Kim with our exciting new import Amy Patton who brings wonderful credentials from college and has fitted in really well and will surely be a crowd favourite.

The other exciting additions are our local young players like Meg Ferraz, Raya Thompson and Georgia Denehey who will get a taste of SBL. They will compliment our solid core group of Lau-ren Jeffers, Cat Waycott, Bec Preston, Bianca Donovan , Lisa Cartwright and Jemma Sallard, along with new additions Keryn McGregor, Korrine Bennell, Brittany Gliddon and Maddy Sayer.

We are really looking forward to the challenge that the Suns will bring tonight and the many challenges that the season 2014 will throw at us.

Thanks again to our amazing major sponsor - Collie Crane Hire, and to all our returning sponsors and new sponsors welcome, and I hope you enjoy the 2014 season. Go Slammers.

 

Ty Harrelson - Slammers MSBL Head Coach

Hello Slammer Fans,

Tonight we welcome the Kalamunda Eastern Suns to the Eaton Rec Centre for our 2nd home game of the season. The Suns had a tough road opener against Cockburn followed by a Sunday game against the highly touted Geraldton Buccs and were unable to come away with a win. Head Coach Warren Kuhn has his squad working hard and despite losing both games the Suns averaged over 95 points in the losses. Wildcat development player Louis Timms is strong inside and surrounded by a group of scoring guards.

Last week was a great start to our season as we defeated rival Goldfields Giants by a score of 127-88. Our team looks strong coming off last season’s 5th place finish in the league and we hope to continue our winning ways at home. Clive Weeden proved his dominance in-side as he scored 28 first half points in the victory, sitting most of the 2nd half of the game as the Slammers led by as many as 44 points.

The Slammers were also led by import Todd Hendley’s 20 points and 8 rebounds in just 18 minutes of court time. Josh Weir got the team off to a great start contributing 5 assists in the first half which saw us put 78 points on the scoreboard. Lee Smith provided great minutes from the bench as he went a perfect 5/5 from the field and scored 13 points while grabbing 7 boards.

The team effort was capped defensively as the Slammer guards put tons of pressure on the Goldfields front court, forcing 18 turnovers leading to 25 points in transition. The defense inside was just as dominant as the Slammers held the Giants to 30% shooting for the game.

Look for key match-ups tonight between Paul Adhar Mayen (Suns) and Todd Hendley. Also, shooting guards Ben Smith (Suns) and Wade Hitchcock will certainly be entertaining to watch.

Good luck to our women’s team today as they play their first game of the season.

As always we like to thank the fans for their support from start to finish.

Loud & Proud! Go Slammers!!!