Double header a test of skill as South West Slammers prepare to face top teams

It was a tough watch seeing the South West Slammers men’s team go down to the Eastern Suns in the final quarter of Saturday night’s game, but coach Shane Goff assures his team is ready to bounce back ahead of this weekend’s double header.

Gearing up to take on Lakeside Lightning in Perth on Friday night before returning home to back it up with Joondalup Wolves, Goff said it was a “disappointing” outcome, knowing what his side was capable of.

“We were quite hopeful that we would be able to take out the Suns in our style of game play, but we just couldn’t ride it out in the dying stages,” he said.

“It’s a good opportunity for us to see where we’re really at playing top sides (this weekend).

“If we put our mind to it and hopefully shots start to drop, we should be able to challenge these top teams.”

Arguably going down to the Suns last week thanks to several late three-pointers from Seb Salinas, and with a less than desirable three-point percentage of 33 per cent themselves, Goff said he hoped to clean up the team’s range shooting going forward.

“Three point shooting over the last couple years hasn’t been ideal and is one thing that we work very hard on to improve,” he said.

“When we look at our two point shooting percentage, which is usually high 70s-80s, we really want to be able to bring our other stats up to meet that.”

Losses aside, Goff was all smiles regarding the debut performance of Canadian import Ben Stevens, who made an impact with 11 points and five rebounds before being fouled off late in the game.

“(Stevens is a) quality player, I watched a lot of tape on him and we did a lot of homework and research on him towards getting him here,” he said.

“It was one of the key aspects to building this group, having a player like him and those other players, once they learn to play with each other they’ll be very tough to beat.”

With experienced tall Clive Weeden sorely missed from last week’s clash, Goff hopes the sharp shooter will be able to return for one of the weekend’s two matches.

Regardless of the outcome he said he looked forward to a home game ahead of a brief stint away.

“Hopefully we get a nice loud, crowd there to get behind our athletes and support them,” he said.

“That crowd when they’re up and going, they’re some of the best.”