THE Willetton Tigers closed their first weekend just about at full strength in the Women's SBL on Sunday with the defending champions scoring another impressive 29-point victory at home to the South West Slammers.

Week 7 of the Women's SBL began on Friday night with the Willetton Tigers beating the Rockingham Flames 83-75 and the Perry Lakes Hawks defeating the Perth Redbacks 79-63.

Then on Saturday night, the Mandurah Magic downed the Joondalup Wolves 99-58, the Lakeside Lightning defeated the East Perth Eagles 87-58 and the Perth Redbacks prevailed in a thriller over the Cockburn Cougars 73-70.

The round then concluded on Sunday afternoon at Willetton Basketball Stadium with the Willetton Tigers beating the South West Slammers 97-68.

Week 7 Saturday night women's SBL results 
Week 7 Friday night Women's SBL results 
Week 7 Women's SBL Preview 

The Tigers threatened to blow the game open early on Sunday as the combination of Stacey Barr, Kate Malpass, Zoe Harper and Jess Hootmann hit the court all together for just the second time.

Willetton did lead by 10 at the end of the first quarter and the danger signs were there for the young Slammers who were without point guard Tori Dugan.

But to South West's credit, they fought back impressively in the second quarter and were only three points behind at half-time.

They couldn’t keep it going, however, and Willetton unleashed its firepower in the second half and with Barr knocking down everything for a patch in the fourth quarter, the Tigers put on 52 second half points to 26 to win the game by 29 in the finish.

Barr continues to give the Tigers that potent scorer they didn’t have last year even though they won the championship. She scored another 29 points to go with five rebounds and three assists on Sunday.

Desiree Kelley added 19 points, seven rebounds, five steals and three assists for Willetton while Malpass contributed 13 points, seven boards and five assists, Zoe Harper 12 points and nine rebounds, and Emma Gandini nine points and six boards.

Tigers coach Simon Parker was happy with the way the weekend turned out with the wins over the Flames and Slammers.

"It was a pretty rocky start against Rockingham on Friday where it was about working out where everyone fit in this team," Parker said.

"We might have lacked a bit of desire and intensity as well to start that game so we fell behind and were playing catch up. At half-time we worked out a way we could all play and fit together so that seemed to work OK against Rockingham.

"After the first half at Rockingham, we are pretty happy with how this weekend has turned out and we still have lots of work to go obviously. We still have some work to do to make sure everyone's fitting in but we're really happy with these two wins."

Brittany Hodges battled hard for the Slammers up against Hootmann, Harper and Emma Lobb to end the contest with 29 points and 17 rebounds.

Courtney Bayliss also had 22 points, nine rebounds and five assists for South West while Raya Thompson scored nine points and Georgia Denehey six. But Hannah Kurek's two points were the only other score the Slammers had for the game.

FRIDAY NIGHT ROUND 7 WOMEN'S SBL RESULTS
Perth Redbacks 63 lost to Perry Lakes Hawks 79
Rockingham Flames 75 lost to Willetton Tigers 83

SATURDAY NIGHT ROUND 7 WOMEN'S SBL RESULTS
Joondalup Wolves 58 lost to Mandurah Magic 99
East Perth Eagles 58 lost to Lakeside Lightning 87
Cockburn Cougars 70 lost to Perth Redbacks 73

SUNDAY ROUND 7 WOMEN'S SBL RESULTS
Willetton Tigers 97 defeated South West Slammers 68

Photo by June Halliday