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Tigers and Lightning in SBL decider

19/Aug/2010

By Jacob Kogi

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Willetton star Daniel Johnson jostles with Matt Wundenburg (Geraldton) in the semi final series. By Grant Lauterbach Willetton star Daniel Johnson jostles with Matt Wundenburg (Geraldton) in the semi final series. By Grant Lauterbach

WILLETON Tigers and Lakeside Lightning will battle for the men’s State Basketball League title in Saturday’s grand final.

Lakeside swept Perth in the best-of-three semi final series to advance to its sixth grand final, while Willetton beat Geraldton 2-1 to stay on course for its first championship.

The Tigers recovered from a 30-point thrashing at the hands of the Buccaneers to win game 2 (108-79) and the deciding game (118-102).

Cam Tovey is one of Willetton’s key players with the Perth Wildcats forward averaging 26.7 points per game in the Geraldton series.

NBL centre Daniel Johnson leads the Tigers with 24.5 points per game for the season, while import power forward Ty Shaw averages 16.2 points and 15.3 rebounds.

Willetton coach Shayne Hampel said it would be tough for his side to win despite its experience.

“The Lightning are the champions so I think we’re massive underdogs,” he said.

“Obviously we have to shut down all their good players, which is hard because they haven’t got a weak link in their team.”

While Willetton has never won a championship, Lakeside is aiming for back-to-back titles and its fourth grand final victory in six years.

Lakeside finished top after the regular season, ahead of the Tigers on head-to-head, and has won 11 straight games since last losing in June.

Import forwards Luke Payne and Ben Beran were crucial to the Lightning’s success in the semis, with Beran averaging 35 points and Payne at 28 points per game.

Jarrad Prue is another of Lakeside’s key players, with the star centre averaging 19.6 rebounds per game for the season.

Lakeside coach Andy Stewart told SportFM 91.3 his young side would have to step up to match it with Willetton’s veterans.

“We’ve got a young squad and they’ve got an experienced squad...Johnson and Tovey are used to playing on the big stage with their NBL experience, so it’ll be a competitive game,” he said.

“We’ve been playing pretty good team defence and that’s probably been our main strength lately. Beran has been in pretty good form and Prue has been exceptional on the boards, and they’ll need to keep that up.”

Limited tickets for Saturday night’s men’s grand final are on sale now through Ticketmaster.

 For details visit www.sbl.asn.au.

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