United States import Blake Bender led the Perth Redbacks Men’s State Basketball League team to a 106 to 103 away-game win against the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

The Redbacks were nine-points down with three minutes to go when they changed tactics to focus on feeding the ball into big-players Bender and centre Michael Vigor, using a height advantage that resulted from Kalamunda’s seven footer Justin Brown and six feet nine inch Lee Roberts having fouled out.

This together with hard-nosed defence that saw successive Suns’ turnovers saw the Redbacks take a one-point lead with one minute to go, which they extended to the eventual three-point gap.

Bender was the game-high scorer with 25 along with seven rebounds.

Redbacks’ point-guard Joel Wagner scored 22 along with nine assists and seven rebounds while Vigor had 20 along with six rebounds and four assists.

Brown scored 21 and had 19 rebounds for the Suns while Roberts also had 21 along with 14 rebounds.

The Redbacks’ men remain in third position in the 14-team competition with 10 wins and four losses.

The Redbacks Women’s team failed to take advantage of a 13-point quarter time lead going down to the Suns 63 to 76.

Centre Marita Payne was their highest scorer with 17 and 11 rebounds while point-guard Rachel Watman had eight along with seven steals, three assists and five rebounds.

The game-high scorer was the Suns’ guard Lizel Buckley with 20 while their centre Sandra Muller-Garner had 11 along with 12 rebounds.

This was the Redbacks women’s second successive loss and sees them drop two places to fifth in the 12-team competition with eight wins and four losses.

The Redbacks play the Bunbury Slammers at the Belmont Oasis Leisure Centre this Saturday with tip-off for the women’s game being 6PM and 8PM for the men’s game.