JOSH ZIMMERMAN South Western Times

July 11, 2014, 6:00 am

The cast is different but the Collie Crane Hire South West Slammers are hoping for a familiar script when they travel to Perth to take on the Redbacks in round 18 of the State Basketball League on Saturday night.

In the last meeting between the two sides back in May the Slammers poured in 35 third quarter points to beat Perth 104-95, import Todd Hendley leading the way with 31 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks.

Bunbury-raised forward Trent Worthington, averaging just six points and five rebounds at the time, was held scoreless in five minutes on the court.

This time around Hendley will watch from the sidelines with a foot injury while replacement Worthington enters the game in white-hot form, fresh off his best performance of the season in the Slammers 109-103 win over Joondalup at the weekend.

South West coach Ty Harrelson was quick to praise Worthington’s 29-point, 10-rebound, four-assist outburst, crediting an increase in focus for the improvement.

“With Todd going down Trent has had a bigger role and he has stepped up to the plate and played well, ” Harrelson said.

“Trent became a father earlier this season and had a few other things going on so he missed some training sessions but now he is back full time and just playing great basketball.

“Trent has always been a good player and of course with more minutes comes more production but he also seems very focused at the moment.”

Both the South West and Perth have added game-changing Americans since the round eight clash, the Slammers welcoming first-year pro Markus Monroe and the Redbacks securing the signature of veteran power forward Lee Roberts.

“Having Markus on the court really opens us up to points in transition, ” Harrelson said.

“Then if we go into a half-court game we can really attack our opponent’s weaker defenders and go to the guys who are hot at the time which has been working the last couple of games.

“If we play the way we did against Joondalup we will beat a lot of teams.”

Roberts, who has played professionally in both Argentina and Japan, is the final piece in a stacked Perth roster which also features high-scoring import Stanley Okoye, rising New Zealand centre Dennis Tawhiti and former Wildcats guards Joel Wagner and Jarrad Prior.

“Lee is a strong post player who can also step out and shoot and he is a big part of the reason Perth has been playing so well in the last few weeks, ” Harrelson said.

“We will scout him and see what his tendencies are and try to gauge how to stop him but we are more focused on playing consistent basketball and forcing the other team to worry about stopping us.”

The women’s Slammers must beat the bottom-placed Redbacks to keep their slim finals hopes alive and will hope for better production from their support players after import Amy Patton and experienced guard Lauren Jeffers combined for 56 points of the Slammers 72 points in a 27-point loss to Joondalup.