NBL1 West Recap | ANZAC Day Men's Round 3

One of the Kalamunda Eastern Suns and Willetton Tigers were going to record their first win of the NBL1 West Men's season on Monday and it was the Tigers who scored the ANZAC Day triumph.

It was the last game of Round 3 of the NBL1 West Men's season at Ray Owen Sports Centre on Monday with both the Eastern Suns and Willetton hunting their first victories of the 2022 campaign.

Round 3 began back on Friday evening with the Joondalup Wolves defeating the Perry Lakes Hawks 80-68 and the Mandurah Magic beating the Perth Redbacks 84-77.

The Warwick Senators also defeated the Kalamunda Eastern Suns 102-93 and the Rockingham Flames prevailed 99-91 against the Lakeside Lightning.

Then on Saturday night, the Cockburn Cougars beat the South West Slammers 87-64, the Geraldton Buccaneers defeated the Willetton Tigers 97-64 and the Goldfields Giants downed the East Perth Eagles 94-62.

The round continued on Sunday with the Cockburn Cougars winning a cracking contest in overtime 113-109 against the Goldfields Giants while the Geraldton Buccaneers defeated the Lakeside Lightning 90-64.

The round wrapped up on Monday at Ray Owen Sports Centre with the now traditional ANZAC Day clash with the Willetton Tigers winning their first game of the season beating the Kalamunda Eastern Suns 79-47.

Now following the first three rounds of the NBL1 West Men's season, the Geraldton Buccaneers and Cockburn Cougars have improved to perfect 4-0 records.

The Joondalup Wolves and Rockingham Flames are also 3-0 while the Goldfields Giants, Warwick Senators and Perry Lakes Hawks are all 2-1.

The Perth Redbacks and Mandurah Magic are both 2-2 with the Willetton Tigers 1-3, and Lakeside Lightning, Kalamunda Eastern Suns and South West Slammers 0-4. The East Perth Eagles are 0-3.

NBL1 WEST – 2022 MEN'S SEASON
ROUND 3 – ANZAC DAY

KALAMUNDA EASTERN SUNS 47 lost to WILLETTON TIGERS 79

The Kalamunda Eastern Suns and Willetton Tigers both came into Monday's clash at Ray Owen Sports Centre hunting their first victory of the 2022 NBL1 West season.

The Eastern Suns opened the season under new coach Ben Ettridge with a loss to the Perth Redbacks in Round 1, to the Joondalup Wolves on Easter Thursday and then the Warwick Senators on Friday night to open Round 3.

Meanwhile, Willetton hadn’t had either Michael Vigor or Damien Scott in their first two losses to the Joondalup Wolves and Cockburn Cougars before Vigor returned on Saturday night of Round 3, but they still lost at home to Geraldton Buccaneers.

That meat they were both determined to taste victory for the first time in their annual ANZAC Day clash, and with the Tigers welcoming back Scott, they got on top early and never looked back.

Willetton put up 17 points to nine in the opening quarter with Scott knocking down a couple of early jumpers to set the tone.

The Tigers put up another 25 points to 16 in the second quarter and that saw them head into the half-time break leading 42-25.

It was more of the same in the second half with Willetton outscoring Kalamunda 21 points to 11 in the third quarter, and 18 to 11 in the fourth to run out 79-47 winners.

Willetton pulled down 47 rebounds for the game compared to just 25 from Kalamunda including 13 at the offensive end to five. The Tigers also shot 46.4 per cent from the floor and 42.9 per cent from downtown with the Suns just managing 29.8 per cent from the field, and 20.0 per cent from deep.

Michael Vigor delivered 20 points, 10 rebounds and three assists for Willetton while shooting 3/5 from beyond the arc.

Hunter Clarke added 16 points, five rebounds and five assists for the Tigers, Travis Fee 13 points and seven rebounds, Michael Garbellini 12 points and four boards, and Damien Scott six points, four rebounds and two assists.

Albert Almanza top-scored for the Eastern Suns with 17 points including hitting 4/10 from three-point land.

Jacob Formosa added 12 points and three rebounds for the Suns, and captain Carl Aylett five points and two steals.