WABL Wrap – Week 14 – 31/07/22

WABL Wrap Week 14 – 31/7/22

Round 14 – All of our “Player of the Game” superstars will receive a FREE PIZZA from our friends at Domino’s Kalamunda – Thanks Guys!

Players of the round:

Misato Armstrong (U16 Girls) – Missy displayed her strongest game of the season. From ball up Missy showed tremendous determination in defence, never giving up. Forcing turn overs and gaining some brilliant steals. Offensively her eye was firmly set on target not only top scoring she secured her career high of 15 points. With multiple team mates in foul trouble from the start, Missy really stepped up lead the whole team. Always smiling and such a positive role model throughout.

Josh Crosbie (U18 Boys) – Bluey is a Suns player through & through. He plays every possession with intensity & focus on doing what is the right thing! Guarding the best guards, denying the pass to a big, pushing hard on transition and following our team structures! Josh gives his heart & soul to his team & his club… Onya Bluey!

U12 GIRLS (LAWRENCE WEST)

Loss against Mandurah Magic (46 – 27)

COACHES NOTES

This week we learnt the importance of taking care of the ball. Every minute of this game was a fight, and every point earned. Throughout the first half we played some solid basketball, keeping our focus and grinding out a 2 point lead going into the break. Unfortunately a disasterous start to the 3rd quarter saw us quickly down by double digits, and every time we started to go on a run Mandurah managed to disrupt our rhythm. We did record a season high in defensive rebounds and had a much more even contribution throughout the team. We will continue to work on keeping our cool under pressure and hopefully we will get another chance to prove ourselves against this strong Mandurah team.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Taneika Lewis – Grit & Grind! In a high-pressure game, Taneika kept her cool and played one possession at a time. Even getting into foul trouble early, she remained a driving force in our defense and helped us get a bit of momentum late in the game. As she finds her confidence, she is becoming more and more a great contributor for our team – well done Tanieka!

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Even in a game where we couldnt put it together, there were definitely some shining moments throughout. As a team we can really move the ball up the court effectively, turning the opponents sloppy pass into an easy layup on the other end in moments. We share the ball well and always make the extra pass.

U12 BOYS (LIZZIE FALCONBRIDGE)

Won against Warwick Senators (51 – 42)

COACHES NOTES

The boys executed the game plan for the majority of the game and we got away with the win, the end result does not reflect on how close the game was. After going down by 5 points in the last meeting at home the boys really wanted to get one back.

Defensively the team was good but not great. The boys have shown they can really apply pressure when they are locked in and everyone on the court knows what position they are meant to be in, we had a few lapses which let the Senators get some easy baskets.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Leyton Rooke – Played with intensity all game on both ends including a great chase down block. Can always be counted on to give 110% controlling the paint and always looking for the open shooter, his decision making on court is improving every week with more experience.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Shane Quartermaine – Set the tone from the start in every quarter with his hustle up and down the court, he is starting to use his natural athleticism and length to improve defensively. Once he gets more confidence he’ll be a force on both ends, always putting the effort at training and great to see it translate on game day.

AJ Mok – Lead the team from the start by setting up the defensive pressure and finding his team mates on the fast breaks. Still needs to be more aggressive on the offensive end and identify where the open lanes are and be better on movement off the ball, works hard every week at our training sessions so hopefully it will flow through onto game day.

U12 BOYS (JOEL WARNER)

Loss against Perth Redbacks (49 – 66)

COACHES NOTES

We continue to improve our scoring volume, which means we are more dangerous in more areas on the court. I was very pleased with the positive attitudes shown by the players under some challenging circumstances. It was a very physical game with most of our Team finishing on 4 fouls. The physicality of the game was difficult to manage but I was very happy with some of the positive ways that we responded when we were challenged. A couple of positive statements were made by our Team which helped to keep spirits high when things weren’t going our way. Sam showed courage retrieving a tough loose ball, Ethan brought his usual high energy game, Phoenix met every challenge and Chad, as always showed heart and soul for the Team. Jeremy played great minutes when we took big defensive risks to get back in the game and Reed’s liveliness is irreplaceable. Reed continues to be a huge asset, forever bringing great positivity to his team-mates. The take-away here is that everyone on this Team contributes.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

This week’s player of the round goes to Phoenix. Now, a multiple-time winner, Phoenix continues to show his capabilities, again, a standout performer for our team. If we kept detailed statistics of this game, I expect he would have finished with close to a triple-double. At the least he would have recorded a double-double with +10 rebounds (easily) along with his 14 points. Phoenix is a delight to coach and his ability to read the game, particularly in our three defensive traps is above what would be expected at his age. What is most impressive is his ability to swing through multiple positions and recover for team-mates when they are out of position in defence. A clear winner against multiple opponents (yes – the opposition thew match-up, after match-up onto him) and a stand-out for our side. Most impressive is the way Phoenix plays with modesty. He never over-celebrates or belittles his opposition; he represents himself, his Team and our Club to a high standard. Well done, Phoenix.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

We had the return of Rylan after a serious injury this week, and he made an instant impact. Rylan brings great intensity and confidence on court. Asten continues to improve week-by-week, holding his starting spot for several weeks in a row now. Asten has become a consistent scorer and a dangerous transition player. Adam showed he is no push-over getting tangled up a couple of times with opposition ‘bigs’. Adam is a strong rebounder and is outsized almost every week, yet he keeps on battling and winning possession. His value to this team is absolutely acknowledged. We have now put together three good games in a row and that is encouraging. On Sunday we didn’t quite meet our high defensive standards and the score-line blew out a little at the end. It was not reflective of how close the game was and overall, the boys should be proud of their game.

U12 BOYS (TIM HART)

Won against East Perth Eagles (58 – 32)

COACHES NOTES

Both teams were missing one of their top-scorers. We pressured the ball, and paid attention to passing lanes during defensive transition, this allowed us to get 25 steals (everyone contributed at least one, including Austin). Angus played effective defence this game, and had top steals (8 steals, 4 rebounds, 12 points). Ram walled up well and shut down the keyway effectively, he had 5 steals, (5 rebounds, 1 assist). Preston picked up 4 steals, (plus 2 reb, 2 assists and 1 block). Ram and Callum had top rebounds (5). Declan, Callum, Mathew and Agnus topped our points as well as shooting percentages (with 60%, 57% and 55%, 50% respectively). The higher steals gave us more shot attempts, which we were able to convert this game. As a team we made 44% of our shots, compared with East Perth’s 29%.

Won against Cockburn Cougars (51 – 46)

COACHES NOTES

The team banded together to play great team basketball both in offence and defence. We added another layer to our baseline play and offence focus to confuse the opposition who match up with us very well.

Rotations were shuffled around a bit to test out different ways to play to try and keep our advantage for the whole game.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Jack Craven- Birthday boy Captain Jack lead from the front and continued to communicate the coaches instructions on the court which helped the team to stay focused and keep the energy up for the whole game. He added 17 points plus setup another 20 points in assists. His ability to know when to drive and finish and when to pass out continues to impress the coach and his team mates.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Toby had a killer game in defence with 3 or 4 blocks plus 4-5 defensive stops and kept our offense moving and staying focused on the court. Sandrae again came on and used his minutes wisely with a few handy stops and rebounds to go with 3 points which could have been more if he got the calls.

The Boys have earned their players choice training session next Thursday as their reward for their hard work over the last month.

U16 GIRLS (MATT HARDING)

Loss against Willeton Tigers (39 – 58)

COACHES NOTES

Not our best game and to lose 2 on the trot isn’t ideal, but in saying that. Your 16 girls have been on top of the table for 13 rounds and I’d rather be the hunter than the hunted.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Ana

U16 GIRLS (CHARLIE SMART)

Loss against Hills Raiders (56 – 74)

Loss against Cockburn Cougars (75 – 103)

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Taj Ingleton, has battled a lot of injury this year, but has worked hard and is contributing and impacting the game in a lot of different ways. With a season high of 15 points, he earns this week’s player of the game.

U18 BOYS (ANGUS HYWOOD)

Loss against Lakeside Lightning (58 – 108)

COACHES NOTES

A big positive to take from this week is that every player had moments in their game that stood out & they all found the scoreboard! A massive focus for us this year is to maintain a focus of TEAM offence. In modern basketball most teams will have the 2-3 players that are dominant at scoring with role players filling the court and playing a position. The incredible ability of players in this group allows us to play position-less when missing players and the adaptability is a key for future success of all our suns players.

Lakeside moved the ball in transition well with their guards building momentum to have our boys out positioned behind the ball, credit to lightning they were clean with layups and that proved to be the difference in scoring close to the rim and getting to the line.

We look our best as a team unit when we have pride in the game/moment and play a man-to-man defence rather than zoning up, unfortunately with NBA Influence on the young generations we see far to often teams zone unnecessarily out of habit. We need to break this habit and push ourselves to individually take on the challenge and contribute to the team goal collectively!

Offence is created from movement! Again the modern game has become so 3-Pt orientated that we see far too much 5/4 Out basketball offence with no motions inside the arc. We must unlearn this thought/habit of chasing a big 3-Pt shot and we must create new thought patterns on every scoring option to create more opportunity. Simply passing around the 3-Pt arc and not moving positions is not good enough in high level basketball!

The biggest positive this whole year is that we have many players first or second year WABL players with that being a major part in our losses against seasoned teams with core groups now having played for multiple years. Our future success & future prospects in this group is very bright.

Onwards & upwards

Fire up

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Josh Crosbie – Bluey is a Suns player through & through. He plays every possession with intensity & focus on doing what is the right thing! Guarding the best guards, denying the pass to a big, pushing hard on transition and following our team structures! Josh gives his heart & soul to his team & his club… Onya Bluey!

U18 BOYS (HAYDEN BIRD)

Loss against Warwick Senators (60 – 103)

COACHES NOTES

Positive takeaway from this game is a major improvement all around from the players we did not lose by as much as last time versing the senators so that was a major up! Also during the first quarter being up by 5pts was a major positive showing exactly how much we have improved since the beginning of the year.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Wayne Beier, he had his absolute heart in the game doing everything possible to make things work offensively for us. During the 3rd quarter Wayne dropped 4 threes in a row and put on an astonishing offensive performance against a very strong team.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Cody Hancock, brilliant defense and rebounding ability being one of the smaller Bigs on the team he still took on all the bigger guys on the other team.

U18 BOYS (RICK BATISTA)

Loss against Perth Redbacks (83 – 108)

COACHES NOTES

Despite being down by 20 at the half we stuck to our task and only lost second half by 5. Outscoring Perth in the final quarter was ticking off a small marker against the top team. Adam, Jet and Lemekani really shone on a tough day that started rough. As coach I wasn’t happy with the energy we came with as a team, but I take a lot of the blame with a change in tactics that didn’t pay off.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Lemekani Phiri – worked hard for us all day smashing through double teams and finishing well at the rim

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Michael Luce hot shooting in the 4th quarter was a standout.

U20 BOYS (DAN VLAHOV)

Won against Rockingham Flames (96 – 70)

COACHES NOTES

Although a 26 point win was achieved this weekend it was well short of the goal that had been set prior to the game beginning.

Against the bottom team in the division, we found ourselves playing at a level far below where we have been and with our Head Coach absent there seemed to be few answers found on the day and this is something that will need to be addressed leading into the finals.

All players managed to put scores on the board this week and there was encouraging performances from a number of our bench players who took the opportunity of additional minutes and made the most of them. Mention should also be made of our leaders who showed good voice and encouragement throughout the game both on and off the court.

Whilst we will never turn down a win, we will need to be at a much higher level than this to fully make the most of the remaining few games to secure as good a finals draw as we can.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

This week the award goes to Alex Jenkins who delivered what was asked at both ends of the court and chipped in a handy game high 18 points