Suns' fortress a tall order for Slammers

To book a spot in their second consecutive State Basketball League grand final the Collie Crane Hire South West Slammers must enter the fortress that is the Ray Owen Sports Centre and beat the team with the best home record in the competition — twice.

The Slammers face their biggest challenge of the season to date when they travel to Perth for Games 2 and 3 of the semi-final series against the Kalamunda Eastern Suns this weekend.

Kalamunda has lost just two of its 12 home games this year, including a three-point victory over the Slammers back in May.

In the last meeting between the two teams, at the Eaton Recreation Centre on Saturday, the Slammers stumbled to a 69-53 defeat and know they will need to shake the offensive rust which plagued them throughout Game 1.

“Nothing was dropping for us and Kim Sitzmann was really the only avenue we had for scoring,” coach Darren Austin said.

“Defensively I thought we were very solid and did pretty well to lose by only 16 considering how hard we were finding it to score.”

Sitzmann led the Slammers with 23 points, with the next best contribution being just seven from guard Lauren Jeffers.

“Zoe Harper had one of her worst performances in a Slammers’ uniform and she really needs to step up and score a few more points for the side,” Austin said.

“Gracely Smith and Kara Hargreaves didn’t contribute much either and all three of them need to be scoring to ease the pressure on Kim.”

The Slammers will need a repeat of their Game 1 rebounding performance (41 boards to Kalamunda’s 46).

But it will be easier said than done, considering the Eastern Suns boast three players over 185cm tall in Jessie Edwards, Melissa Moyle and import Jennie Rintala.

“They are a bit taller than us but not hugely so and their main strength is they work really well as a team, which is an area we were lacking in on the weekend,” Austin said.

“Being defending champions, the performance we put up in Game 1 was totally unacceptable, especially considering how well we played the week before against Willetton.”

Game 2 is at the Ray Owen Sports Centre in Lesmurdie on Saturday night with Game 3, if required, taking place the following night at the same venue.