WABL Wrap Week 1 – 24/4/22
Welcome back for another WABL season of Suns basketball. It was great to see everyone take to the court after what was a long pre-season of changing Covid rules and many players/teams having to isolate. Well done to all teams on their resilience through this process.
All of the “Player of the Game” superstars will receive a FREE PIZZA from our friends at Domino’s Kalamunda – Thanks Guys!
U12 GIRLS (LAWRENCE WEST)
Won against Mandurah Magic (47 – 19)
COACHES NOTES
Our pre-season has been quite affected by Covid cases and isolations (as I’m sure a lot of teams were), so it was really nice to see our team pull it all together. Our intensity on defense was great and our rebounding effort made a big difference. It gives me confidence that this ferocious group of girls are in for a great season.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Leah Darroch – Stepping up into the team from a development role, Leah immediately made a difference to our team. Scoring 7 points and playing some fierce defense – Well done Leah!
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
A bit of a cliche but it is really hard to highlight a single player when so many could have been the POTG pick. The leadership shown by our older girls was great, calming their team mates when things got a little rocky and setting the tone with the effort and intensity required.
U12 BOYS (LIZZIE FALCONBRIDGE)
Won against Willeton Tigers (56 – 46)
COACHES NOTES
Great team defense in different moments of the game but need to be more consistent. Offensively great ball movement and unselfish passing to find the open man.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Alijah Acabado – Put 100% all game on both ends of the court. Smallest player on the team but has the biggest heart which shines on the court.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Nate Miles – Hustled all game on both ends of the court and combined with AJ to close out the game. Dave Brar – Great leadership offensively and passing to find the open player. AJ Mok – Hit a nice 3 pointer to start the game and settle the boys down. Unfortunately suffered a back injury in the 1st quarter but finished the game off to help us get the win and close out in the 4th quarter.
U12 BOYS (JOEL WARNER)
Loss against Cockburn Cougars (37 – 41)
COACHES NOTES
Team cohesion, being unified and focussed despite several challenges.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Phoenix Sackman. For bringing enormous energy and motivating the less experienced players. For demonstrating to younger players the way to handle the pressures of their first WABL game.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Tala Avia on a great game
U12 BOYS (TIM HART)
Loss against Mandurah Magic (36 – 39)
COACHES NOTES
The boys pulled down more rebounds, and generally shut down easy access to the keyway. We reduced the gap from when we lost to the same team in the grading tournament.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Mathew Berkout had the top score, he kept us in the game. He pulled down a good portion of rebounds, and helped us move the ball up the court.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Dante Hart, for effective on-ball, denial and help defense which set an example for the rest of the team and helped keep Mandurah’s score under 40. Sebastian Brisk and Declan Hartono pushed through knocks and falls to play out the game. Angus Pool gave us an edge in the first half, finding his team mates inside for some good assists, but was out in Q3 due to 5 fouls. Despite being upset with the 5th foul, he remained and cheered on his team mates.
U14 GIRLS (ANDREW HERBERT)
Won against Willeton Tigers (61 – 33)
COACHES NOTES
The girls have come together really well and showed great discipline at both ends of the floor. These girls will only continue to get stronger together as the season goes on.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Isla-Rose Gray. Isla played with a high tempo every time she was in the floor which assisted in team success.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Congratulations to Harper Ashbolt playing her 1st WABL game.
U14 GIRLS (JEMMA / JAYMEE)
Loss against Hills Raiders (52 – 27)
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Izzy Biggs as she dominated both ends of the court
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Jade and Heidi on a great game
U14 BOYS (ROB REES)
Loss against Willeton Tigers (50-57)
COACHES NOTES
The team started very well and got into the rhythm we wanted. We play a very good offence with good passes. When we run we score. We need to work on our midrange shooting, however our inside game was strong.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Josh Mahama. He was dominant inside with excellent balance and control and his shots inside were perfect. He rebounded. He Defended with foul trouble and listened to coaches instructions perfectly.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Haruto Olson. He had to support Josh as the main starting centre and he played very well with 4 fouls for 2 quarters and was aggressive on the boards whilst still controlling his defensive skills so as not to foul out. He showed tremendous control.
Tobie is a great shooter. He swished his 2 free throws and took his mid range shots as instructed but they didn’t drop this time around. Josh played extremely well with 4 fouls from half time only to go down with a “ no call’ foul in the last quarter. he was very controlled in Defence to not foul and still maintained a tough defence.
U14 BOYS (THOR ADMUNDSEN)
Loss against Willeton Tigers (53 – 64)
COACHES NOTES
Adapted to the round 1 pace well, applying strong offensive structures and working through hands well.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Roman Dowd – his fearless offensive approach through multiple positions kept the team within striking distance throughout the game.
U14 BOYS (LUKE POYNER)
Loss against Willeton Tigers (70 – 71)
COACHES NOTES
The boys played a great game that changed lead multiple times went down to double overtime. We had a good start with defensive pressure giving us a 10 point lead initially, but foul trouble for a few players in the first quarter forced us to back the pressure off a bit, allowing Willetton to catch up by half time. The last 5 minutes of the regular game time we were down to 6 players due to fouls and injury/fatigue but the team managed to keep in the game. We definitely need to work on high-pressure end of game strategies as the instructions given in timeouts were almost immediately forgotten when back on the court, but this game was a great learning opportunity for them to experience that situation. In all it was a huge game for the team at the start of the season, and its a testament to their improvement since the grading games.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Ryan Eva – 27 points, played a great press in the back court and managed the game with early foul trouble
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Josh Rechichi – was given the task of shutting down the top scoring Willeton player in the fourth quarter and overtime periods and was very effective despite a substantial size disadvantage.
U14 BOYS (SHANNON TREW)
Won against Mandurah Magic (76 – 27)
COACHES NOTES
Players focused on the 3 things they can control- (Maximum) Effort, (High) Energy and (Positive) Attitude. Playing as a team and being unselfish in offence and defence. Amazing effort with their full court trap and setting up offence and defence quickly. 20 points from weak side cuts for easy baskets. High emphasis on dribble drive and working on their motion offence.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Jack Craven – Team nominated Jack to be Captain on Thursday night and he took the captain role full on and lead by example on and off the court today. He ran the court, running paint to paint. He was inspirational in getting our trap to work well and kept everyone’s levels at the Max.
U16 GIRLS (MATT HARDING)
Won against Lakeside Lightning (87 – 38)
COACHES NOTES
Big percentage win for our girls but still needing work on positioning on court in our defensive structure
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Skye Thompson
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Rosie Leeder had her first official head coach duties. The club is very proud of her efforts.
U16 GIRLS (CHARLIE SMART)
Won against Mandurah Magic (39 – 36)
COACHES NOTES
I love their coachability and never give up attitude. They are hungry to learn and executed new in game structures extremely well.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Amber – watching her confidence grow tremendously over the game she became dominant and unbeatable under the basket both ends of the court!
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
The whole team. I can’t speak highly enough of a group of girls who have never played together before let alone WABL and to come into U16s so raw yet not give up was an absolute credit to them. They fought unbelievably hard to shake of the nerves and face the team that had beaten them at grading. I can’t wait to see them develop over the season, such a beautiful coachable group of girls I’m proud to be entrusted with their care.
U16 BOYS (BAILEY FERGUSON)
Won against Rockingham Flames (87 – 48)
COACHES NOTES
The team had the ability to not lose focus on the structure of our team principles which in turn gave us the winning result
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Blake Thomas. Stepping up and doing the job that was required by communicating with his team and effort on court
U16 BOYS (LACHIE RILEY)
Loss against Willeton Tigers 56 – 66)
COACHES NOTES
Good chemistry in defence for a first game. Everyone worked hard to play their part.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Deegan Castle, top scorer, secured plenty of shot blocks and rebounds.
U16 BOYS (RAE D’SYLVA)
Loss against Cockburn Cougars (62 – 79)
COACHES NOTES
For our first game there was a lot of ball movement and our defence was good.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Marcellino really had a very productive all round game on offence and defence.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Brent Talaguit and Lachlan Crosbie showed a lot of hustle and were incredible on the defensive end and Jackson Nicolaou also made some incredible plays to get his teammates involved.
U16 BOYS (TYRON NEIL)
Won against Mandurah Magic (82 – 63)
COACHES NOTES
The team played together and every one played a part in the win
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Noah Cross, was a late inclusion into the team after being scouted from domestic level due to lack of height in our team. Noah stepped up in his debut WABL game and finished the game with 19 points, a heap of rebounds and a couple of blocks, he is a real asset to our new team and the missing link we needed for our 2022 WABL campaign.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Isaiah Gray & Tyler Egan also put in solid performances.
U18 GIRLS (DYSON LOWE)
Won against Lakeside Lightning (78 – 46)
COACHES NOTES
Maintaining good defence for majority of the game. Getting through our offences and executing them properly. Working as a team rather than individuals
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Abby Rothnie
U18 BOYS (COOPER LOWE)
Loss against Lakeside Lightning (88 – 114)
COACHES NOTES
We played with 7 due to injury/covid. Was pleasing to see all players play hard with limited subs against a quality team
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Riley Pabst, he did what he was asked the whole game with no complaints, and played with great sportsmanship and was a good team mate which makes my job easier
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Taj who didn’t play due to injury, was still on the bench cheering and encouraging his team mates the whole game without prompting, which was so good to see.
U18 BOYS (ANGUS HYWOOD)
Won Loss against Warwick Senators (55 – 76)
COACHES NOTES
Great start from our boys just lacked the perseverance needed to win the game! Our offence was unstoppable getting to the basket just finishing was an issue for us. We will grow from this and become what we are capable of becoming as a team! Onwards and upwards
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Lachlan Watson – played his heart out and looked the most dangerous until he went down with an injured ankle.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
U18 BOYS (HAYDEN BIRD)
Loss against Perth Redbacks (62-82)
COACHES NOTES
First half was a lot of team work and movement with the ball and communication on the defence. Takeaways for the game is to work on keeping intensity high all game and not letting a loss in lead put our heads down.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Wayne Beier, all game he gave his all whether it was moving the with the ball having to score or making sure in the defence his player dosent get to the hoop.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Dominic for being a great team player and creating space and shots for all his teammates.
U18 BOYS (RICK BATISTA)
Won against Joondalup Wolves (82-70)
COACHES NOTES
Great defender and buy in to the game plan Great team effort, everybody scored everybody played defence
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Hamish Stewart was really tough all day from development player to squad member this week because of injury he shone brightly
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Saxon Counsel 19 points were a team high and Michael Luce was a great in his wabl debut