THE Perry Lakes Hawks and Rockingham Flames enter Friday night's Men's SBL contests needing to steady their respective ships against higher placed opponents the Perth Redbacks and Willetton Tigers ahead of five big Saturday night matches and one on Sunday.

Week 7 of the Men's SBL begins on Friday night with the Perth Redbacks playing the Perry Lakes Hawks at Belmont Oasis and the Rockingham Flames hosting the Willetton Tigers at Mike Barnett Sports Complex.

Then on Saturday night, the Geraldton Buccaneers take on the Kalamunda Eastern Suns at Active West Stadium and the Goldfields Giants host the Stirling Senators at Neils Hansen Basketball Stadium.

The Joondalup Wolves also face the Mandurah Magic at Joondalup Basketball Stadium, the East Perth Eagles tackle the Lakeside Lightning at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre and the Cockburn Cougars battle the Perth Redbacks at Wally Hagan Stadium.

Then on Sunday afternoon, the Willetton Tigers play the South West Slammers at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

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Friday night's action sees the Flames host the Tigers. Rockingham comes into the contest on a three-game losing streak with a 2-5 record.

But they will be determined to put in a strong showing at home following the two losses last weekend to the Geraldton Buccaneers and Cockburn Cougars.

Their task is a significant one, though, up against the 6-2 Willetton who has Ray Turner and Jay Bowie up and firing with support from Kyle Armour and Damien Scott.

Friday night's other fixture sees the Redbacks hosting the Hawks in a contest featuring two teams who came into 2017 expected to be genuine championships threats.

The Redbacks have lived up to that billing currently sitting on a 6-1 record with Lee Roberts and Michael Vigor yet to arrive.

However, the Hawks haven’t clicked as yet under championship winning coach Matt Parsons and last week's losses to the Buccs and Stirling Senators brought that into focus.

Parsons now is expecting a response from several members of his group after challenging them to lift following last weekend's disappointing losses.

"We will back ourselves in to turn it around starting on Friday night. It's still really early in the season and they are a great bunch of guys with a lot of talent in the group," Parsons said.

"They know how to play playoff basketball when they get there too, they just need to sustain that effort early to put themselves in a good position to win.

"I'm really happy to be at Perry Lakes and it's going to be exciting over the next couple of weeks because we have to respond. Most teams do in this case so I'm confident we will and I'm excited to see who steps up and takes that on themselves."

Then on Saturday night, the Buccaneers return home after road wins last weekend to the Perry Lakes Hawks and Rockingham Flames full of confidence sitting on top of the standings with a 6-1 record.

The Eastern Suns make the trip to Geraldton having come back to earth a little with losses last week to the East Perth Eagles and Willetton Tigers following a three-game winning streak.

But the Suns are always a dangerous opponent and Geraldton coach Ray Evans will be making sure there's no signs of complacency.

"We have to worry about Kalamunda this weekend who are another team that's on the rise and starting to play really well. We certainly won't be taking them lightly," Evans said.

"The guys were pretty sore after a tough road trip so it was good to have a light week on the track knowing we are coming up against a Kalamunda team who loves to play that full-court defence. We need to be fit and firing to be able to beat them."

The Senators are another in-form team coming off impressive wins over the Willetton Tigers and Perry Lakes Hawks last week in response to a loss to the Eastern Suns.

The Giants are returning home but have won just one of seven games this season.

Stirling coach Mike Ellis won't be taking them easy, though, despite his team's good form and the Giants' record to date.

"They are always tough there and the trip's a bugger of a trip, and all that," Ellis said.

"They are the sort of team where Holmen could have 40 on any night. We have to be ready to play and we don’t want a letdown after a really good weekend. We need to keep the intensity where it is and build on it."

The Wolves have also started the 2017 season strongly winning five of their six matches ahead of them hosting the winless Magic on Saturday night.

Mandurah hasn’t been as bad as that 0-6 record suggests under new coach Aaron Trahair and Wolfpack coach Ben Ettridge knows the longer a team loses the closer they become to that breakthrough victory.

"We'd never take any team lightly and we've already seen that anyone can beat anyone this season. The longer a team goes without a win you know they are due, and the longer you go undefeated that next loss is always around the corner," Ettridge said.

"We won't take them lightly. We'll go through everything we need to do but it's good to have a good break leading into the game after short turnarounds the last three weeks. It will be at home again as well so that's a big advantage for us."

The Lightning are another team in need of a victory having lost their last four including against the Wolves and Cougars last weekend on back-to-back nights.

The job against East Perth at Morley won't be easy with the Eagles looking impressive at present sitting on a 5-3 record and coming off another strong win over Kalamunda last Saturday night.

The final game on Saturday night pits the defending champion Cougars up against the Redbacks.

Cockburn is building some form nicely after wins last weekend over Lakeside and Rockingham to improve to a 5-3 record while Perth will be coming off its game with Perry Lakes on Friday.

Then on Sunday at Willetton, the Tigers back up playing the Flames on Friday night by hosting a Slammers team who have now won their last two matches over Rockingham and Mandurah after starting the season 0-4 under new coach Charles Nix.

WEEK 7 MEN'S SBL FIXTURES
FRIDAY
Perth Redbacks v Perry Lakes Hawks – Belmont Oasis 8.30pm
Rockingham Flames v Willetton Tigers – Mike Barnett Sports Complex 8.30pm

SATURDAY
Geraldton Buccaneers v Kalamunda Eastern Suns – Active West Stadium 8pm
Joondalup Wolves v Mandurah Magic – Joondalup Basketball Stadium 8pm
East Perth Eagles v Lakeside Lightning – Morley Sport and Recreation Centre 8pm
Goldfields Giants v Stirling Senators – Neils Hansen Basketball Stadium 8pm
Cockburn Cougars v Perth Redbacks – Wally Hagan Stadium 8pm

SUNDAY
Willetton Tigers v South West Slammers – Willetton Basketball Stadium 4pm

Photo by Belinda Pike (Croc Photography)