In Sunday’s Round seven men’s action the Cockburn Cougars were too good for the Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers, winning 107-91.

Both sides in the first quarter were competitive with the Cougar’s Brian Carlwell opening up the scoring for his side. However, a lot of points in the first quarter were decided over free throw shooting and the Cougar’s dominance continued throughout the first quarter. The Buccaneer’s Michael Lay was dominant for his side by closing down the Cougars lead.

The result of the first quarter saw the Cougar’s leading the Buccaneers 32-24.

The Cougars put on an exciting show in the second quarter with accurate three point shooting and a huge slam dunk by their star Brian Carlwell to entertain the home crowd. Damien Scott led his side with 12 points that quarter to extend his sides lead.

The outcome for the second quarter had the Cougar’s still in front of the Buccaneers 58-35.

At one point in the third quarter the Cougar’s lead increased to 30 points and the tall Brian Carwell offered some entertainment to his home crowd by doing another big slam dunk. The Cougars really knew how to put on a show and pleased their fans.

The result for the third quarter saw the Cougar’s leading the Buccaneers by 28 points, 84-56.

The Buccaneers came back fighting and decreased the Cougars lead in the fourth quarter with the help from a couple of their star players, Aaron Ralph and Daniel Thomas to put some pressure on the home side. It was close but the Cougar’s maintained their composure to finish off the game solidly against the Buccaneers.

The Cockburn Cougar’s Coach Stephen Charlton said that he thought for the first three quarters his team played pretty well, but was disappointed for most of the last quarter.

“We sort of took our foot off the gas a little bit, and to the Bucc’s credit they kept coming, but overall a 16 point win, can’t be too upset about it.”

When asked about how their side relinquished a 30 point lead one stage in the third quarter he said, “they [Buccaneer’s] got more aggressive at that point . . . and I was a little disappointed that we kind of relaxed a bit. Mentally we thought we were good and then we just stopped doing the things that got us that 30 point lead.”

The leading scorer for the Cougar’s side came from Jeremiah Wilson with 25 points, while the two stars for the Buccaneer’s Aaron Ralph and Michael Lay both scored 28 points for their side.

Next week in round eight the Cockburn Cougars face the Stirling Senators and the Geraldton Buccaneers play the Waneroo Wolves. The Cougar’s currently sit in fourth position on the ladder while the Buccaneers sit in tenth position.

Article by Shannan Osrin
Photo by Mick Cronin