Wanneroo Wolves are one win away from a men's State Basketball League Grand Final berth after clinching game one of their semi-final series 104-95 over Cockburn Cougars at Wally Hagan Stadium on Saturday.

The Cougars took it up to Wanneroo early in the match with their perimeter shooting and led 33-29 at the first break but the Wolves clawed their way back into the contest with a 24-15 second period.

Cockburn continued to come at Wanneroo throughout the second half but fell just short of hitting the front each time they threatened.

The margin got as low as one-point with four minutes remaining in the fourth period before John Vaudreuil and Brad Robbins guided the Wolves home.

Vaudreuil led Wanneroo to victory with 28 points while Ty Harrelson had 27 for the Cougars.

Wolves’ stand-in coach Ryan Benson, who was again leading the team as Ben Ettridge was away with Australia's wheelchair basketball team, said it was a great win on the road after being repeatedly tested by the Cockburn side that refused to lie down.

“Our defence was actually really great for most of the game. Our first quarter was slack, we let them score 33 points but after that we played pretty well defensively and on offense we just ran them the way we wanted to. We executed really well,” he said.

“If we can stick to the process, do what we need to get done, we can win.

“It helps having home court and that’s what the whole season is for, but Cockburn are a great team, so no way is it going to be easy, it’s going to be tough but it’s always a good advantage to be at home.”

Cockburn will need to reverse their round 12 performance at Joondalup, which was won by the Wolves 89-83.

But Cockburn coach Stephen Charlton said he was confident his team would be able to make some changes and turn the tide in games two and three.

“At the end of the day we pushed a really good team and team I’ve rated all year the whole way. We’ll take out of it that we scored 95 points and I think we’ve got a fair bit of improvement to do on that,” he said.

“Defence is where we’re going to start.

“Defensively, I still think we’ve got a long way to go. We gave up 104, that’ll be the first thing we work on, 95 should be enough for us to win a game.

“At the end of the day we had to win two games to get out of this semi and we’ve still got to win two games, so we’re still where we started, it’s just we don’t have the wiggle room. "

Game two of the series will be played at Joondalup on Friday, with game three, if required, on Saturday.

Article by Ben Cameron at Wally Hagan Stadium
Photo by Wayne Wright (Wayne Wright Photography)

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