West Recap | Anzac Round Thursday

Image credit: HyperFocus Images

The most southern teams in the NBL1 West opened Anzac Round and it was a pair of wins for the Mandurah Magic at home to the South West Slammers on their home floor in emphatic fashion on Thursday night.

WOMEN

Mandurah Magic (106) defeated South West Slammers (35)

Even without their WNBA bound superstar Ally Wilson and coach Vlad Alava, the depth, class and experience of the Mandurah Magic shone in a 106-35 home win over the South West Slammers.

The Magic started the season with a pair of wins over the Willetton Tigers and Lakeside Lightning before coming into their Thursday match up with the Slammers off losses to the East Perth Eagles and Cockburn Cougars.

They were back home at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre with Wilson on her way to Chicago for her WNBA training camp with the Sky while coach Alava was also unavailable for the second straight game with Craig Reynolds taking charge.

The Slammers arrived for their closest road trip in the competition having ended their 52-game losing streak to start the season but since losing to the Goldfields Giants and Lakeside the past two weeks.

The Magic came out and scored the first 12 points of the game before the Slammers got on the board after three minutes thanks to Mykea Gray.

Mandurah finished the first quarter with a three-point barrage with Casey Mihovilovich, Tiana Palmer, Jade Gowland and Claire Jacobs all hitting from downtown.

The home team ended up leading 38-13 by quarter-time before it was another 22 points to seven in the second term with Mandurah heading into the locker room for half-time leading 60-20.

It was more of the same in the second half with Mandurah outscoring South West 20 points to seven in the third quarter, and the Slammers ended up missing their first 18 three-point attempts in the game.

It was Gray who ended up breaking the drought four minutes into the fourth quarter but the Magic still went on with the job getting out to a 71-point lead and ending up winning by that margin in the finish.

The Magic ended up pulling down 62 rebounds to 41 while shooting 43 per cent from the field opposed to 20, and going 13/33 from three-point land to 1/20.

Mandurah also collected 25 offensive rebounds to 14 while the Magic forced the Slammers into 35 turnovers which all led to the home team taking 28 extra field goal attempts for the game.

Grace Berg delivered a big performance for the Magic made up of 26 points, nine rebounds and two steals on 11/15 shooting from the floor.

Claire Jacobs also produced 20 points, seven rebounds, six steals and four assists, Jade Gowland 16 points and six boards, Tiana Palmer 11 points, four assists and three rebounds, and games record holder Casey Mihovilovich nine points, seven assists, two boards and two steals.

It was a tough night for the Slammers with Cayla King top-scoring with 11 points to go with three rebounds and two steals.

Mykea Gray added 10 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals, and Addison Edwards five points and three boards.

MANDURAH MAGIC 106 (Berg 26, Jacobs 20, Gowland 16)

SOUTH WEST SLAMMERS 35 (King 11, Gray 10, A Edwards 5)

MEN

Mandurah Magic (116) defeated South West Slammers (92)

The championship defence of the Mandurah Magic is gathering steam and they scored the impressive 116-92 home win over the South West Slammers set up with a 71-point first half outburst.

The Magic might have lost plenty of faces from that championship triumph last year including Michael Durr, Jarrod Molnar and MVP Joel Murray, but Mark Utley looks to have done another masterful job of retooling his team for a title defence.

After a first up loss to the Willetton Tigers in a Grand Final rematch, things have started to click for the Magic and Utley has them playing an up-tempo, fast-paced style and it worked in wins over Lakeside, East Perth and Cockburn where they averaged 105 points.

They were on that three-game winning streak ahead of hosting the Slammers at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre on Anzac Day eve with South West chasing a first win of 2025 under new coach Jason Chalk.

The Magic shot out of the blocks with the first seven points of the game including two finishes at the rim to big man Sammie Freeman and then a three ball to Julian Pesava.

However, the Slammers did well to work back into the contest and by quarter-time the Magic's lead was only 30-26.

Mandurah was then able to turn on a blistering second period by putting up 41 points and the Slammers struggled to keep up with 26 of their own.

That saw the defending champions leading 71-51 by the half-time break.

The Slammers had done well themselves to put up the 51 points, but just couldn’t contain the high-octane Magic and to South West's credit, they did lock in more strongly in the second half to limit Mandurah to the 45 points.

However, the Slammers just could never quite put enough points on the board to close the gap and the Magic went on to score the 24-point victory to continue their run of high scores in their four-game winning run.

It was a scorching offensive display from Mandurah who went on to shoot 59 per cent from the field with 12/24 three-point shooting and ending up going 18/27 at the foul line.

Lachlan Bertram had a breakout season last year to be a key part of Mandurah's championship triumph. He has gone up another level again in 2025 and had 25 points, eight rebounds and eight assists with 5/10 shooting from deep.

Julian Pesava is also in the best form of his 158-game, two-time championship winning career with 22 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two steals on shooting 4/5 from long-range.

Import guard Jahcoree Ealy delivered 17 points, eight assists and seven rebounds with some spectacular finishes while big man Sammie Freeman delivered 17 points, nine rebounds and four blocks.

Former Eastern Sun Cooper Lowe added 10 points and two assists with Joe Macdonald contributing nine points.

The Slammers are now 0-4 to start the season despite the best efforts of Jamal Poplar who produced 22 points, five rebounds and two assists despite battling foul trouble.

Manny Wugol also had 18 points, four rebounds and two assists, Devan Craig 12 points and two assists, Calvin Whipple 11 points and six boards, and Pharell Keats eight points, five assists, four steals and two rebounds.

MANDURAH MAGIC 116 (Bertram 25, Pesava 22, Ealy 17, Freeman 17)

SOUTH WEST SLAMMERS 92 (Poplar 22, Wugol 18, Craig 12)