THE Mandurah Magic, Lakeside Lightning, East Perth Eagles and Wanneroo Wolves all won on Saturday night to claim the opening games of their quarter-final men's SBL series'.

The Mandurah Magic scored an upset 107-96 win over the Perry Lakes Hawks with the Lakeside Lightning downing the BOQ Perth Redbacks 84-79, the People's Choice Eagles thrashing the Collie Crane Hire South West Slammers 102-70 and then the Australian Belt Scrapers Wanneroo Wolves scoring a terrific 96-81 win over the Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers.

The Magic might have finished the regular season in seventh position on the standings and the Hawks in second, but that went out the window on Saturday night with Mandurah scoring the 11-point victory at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre.

The series now heads to the WA Basketball Centre on Friday night with the Hawks needing to score the win at home to force a deciding Game 3 on Saturday night which will also be at the WABC.

The Wanneroo Wolves were the other lower-ranked team to pull off a win at home on Saturday night recording a 15-point win over the Geraldton Buccaneers at Joondalup Basketball Stadium.

Despite finishing as the No. 6 seeds, the Wolves were always going to provide a big test to the third-ranked Buccaneers and now the series heads to Geraldton with the Buccaneers hosting Game 2 at Active West Stadium on Saturday and Game 3 on Sunday if required.

The top-seeds Lakeside have been the clear dominant team of the men's SBL competition all season long but the Lightning had to fight hard on Saturday to overcome the eighth-ranked Perth Redbacks by five points at Belmont Oasis.

However, the Lightning got the job done and now returns to Lakeside Recreation Centre to host Game 2 on Friday with the chance of going straight through the semi finals. Game 3 will be on Saturday if the Redbacks are able to pull off the upset on Friday.

The East Perth Eagles scored the big win of the weekend thumping the Slammers by 32 points at Eaton Recreation Centre giving the Eagles a chance now to wrap up the series this Friday night at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.

There were some big individual performances to kick off the finals action as well with none better than Taylor Mullenax's 38 points and nine rebounds for the Magic in their win over the Hawks.

Adrian Majstrovich did all he could with 37 points, 13 rebounds and four assists for the Hawks with Michael Lay finishing with 21 points, seven rebounds, five assists and five steals.

Justin Cecil starred for the Lightning with 26 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots with Chris Sofoulis scoring 18 points and Jarrad Prue pulling in 17 rebounds.

Michael Vigor did his best for the Redbacks finishing with 21 points and 18 rebounds.

Joe-Alan Tupaea had a terrific all-round night for the Eagles with 21 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Michael Jones scored 20 points, Drew Williamson 18 and Tom Jervis 14 to go with 13 rebounds.

Trian Iliadis led the way for the Wolves with 24 points with Rob Huntington, Seb Salinas, Doug Gates and Damian Matacz all scoring 12 points.

Rob Kampman had a big night for the Buccaneers with 33 points and 15 rebounds.

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Darren Speedie (Vision Inspired Photography)