The Just Better Care Roller Hawks have continued their unbeaten start to the NWBL season with wins over Red Dust and Perth at Indigenous Round in Melbourne.
All six NWBL teams were in Melbourne for the second ever Kevin Coombs Indigenous Round with the Roller Hawks able to outplay hosts Red Dust 72-49 in the marquee game on Saturday with coach Brett Stibners rating the performance 10/10.
Wollongong had a tougher time on Sunday against the Perth Wheelcats coming from behind to win 86-79 with Stibners singling out the team’s ability to back up after tough games as an area for improvement.
“We need to be better the day after we play a really good game. And I spoke to the guys after today's game. We played well today, but last night was 10 out of 10, and today was probably a 7 out of 10, and we need finals weekend to be 10 out of 10 through the whole weekend,” said Stibners
Manly also remain undefeated and are ahead of Wollongong on for and against, setting up the match up of the season in the final regular season round and likely Finals.
“They can beat us many, many ways, so we need to be adjusting as we go throughout, which we've done really well this weekend, especially yesterday. I changed the defence a few times and the offence. So the guys were getting used to doing that, but we need to be really switched on in those consecutive games.”
Luke Pople starred in Saturday’s win with 31 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists with Phil Evans (15 points), Tristan Knowles (11 points) and the returning Jontee Brown (11 points, 12 rebounds) all reaching double figures.
On Sunday Tristan Knowles had 37 points, 7 rebounds and 11 assists but it was once again a team performance with Pople, Evans and Brown also reaching double figures.
“We use our weapons well. We get the ball to the shooters and that creates our offence. We swing it around in the open player. Phil shot really well from the 45 today as well. I think we had 4 scorers in double figures. If we can get four people scoring double figures, it's really tough to beat us.
“Defence was great yesterday. I was a bit nervous getting up the floor when we started to press, but it worked out really, really well. Steve (Elliott) once again, did a great job. We get Hannah back, we can actually make our line up a bit bigger and a bit faster so I'm looking forward to that,” added Stibners.
“Today, it (defence) was good, but they were just making shots. Cooper Spillane, one of the under 23s players. I think he's only 18. Six from 10 from three. You can't stop everything, they shot really well. That's how they kept up with us.”
International Break
The NWBL season goes on hiatus until the end of the month with the Aussie Rollers immediately going into camp before flying to Toronto for another World Championships warm up tournament, this time against USA, Canada and Italy.
Among the Rollers squad will be Knowles, Pople, Elliott, Evans, Stibners as assistant coach and Jontee Brown who had only arrived 48 hours prior to the round after returning from Turkey.
“He fits right into what we're trying to do. Today, he was outstanding and contributed on the scoreboard. Yesterday, I didn't realise that he didn't score that well or shoot that well, but his contribution to every other facet of his game you didn’t notice he hadn’t shot the ball well.”
“Today he gave us another dimension as well. I think normally ‘Huss’ (Shawn Russell) will cut to the basket and score that way but Jontee can shoot from outside which opens it up for other players to cut to the basket.”
Roller Hawks Return Against Marvels
The Roller Hawks return to the court in Round 5 at home to new outfit Victoria Marvels. The Marvels have had a tough start to National League and are yet to win a game but have shown improvements each round.
All games will be at Shellharbour City Stadium.
SEASON DRAW FULL FIXTURES go to rollerhawks.com.au or wba.net.au
ROUND 5 – vs VICTORIA MARVELS
Shellharbour City Stadium, NSW
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Friday 31 July 6:15pm – 3x3 7:00pm – 5 on 5 |
Saturday 1 August 2:15pm – 3x3 3:00pm – 5 on 5 |
Sunday 2 August 11:00am – 5 on 5 |