South West Slammers men’s side suffer loss to Goldfields Giants on night of Aaron Edwards’ jersey retirement

South West Slammers men’s side were not able to honour the jersey retirement of club legend Aaron Edwards on Saturday night with a win, suffering an 11-point loss to Goldfields Giants at Eaton Recreation Centre. Edwards, a 423-game veteran and member of the 1995, 1998 and 1999 championship sides, was honoured in a pre-game ceremony where he became only the club’s second player to receive the honour alongside long-time teammate James Fitch. But the presence of several club legends was not enough to inspire the Slammers to their third victory of the season, going down 85-74. The visitors burst out of the blocks early, with Shane Goff forced to call for time with his side trailing by 10 points at the back end of the first quarter. Finding some offensive rhythm helped the Slammers close the half-time gap to four points but a 22-15 third term saw the Giants extend their lead. The Slammers threatened to close the gap on multiple occasions in the final quarter but the Giants were able to come up with big buckets when required, with the margin getting no closer than eight points in the final stanza. Perimeter shooting was a major difference in the game — the Giants were able to connect on 11 of their 24 three-point attempts while the Slammers could make only six of their 23 shots from beyond the arc. Star Buay Tuach played all 40 minutes in the defeat, posting a line of 18 points, four steals and three rebounds while dealing with some close checking from the Giants. Mathiang Muo (14 points, eight rebounds) and Alex Holcombe (10 points, six rebounds) were the other Slammers’ starters to score in double-digits, while Jack Flynn continued another strong performance off the bench, coming up with 11 points in only 15 minutes. The Slammers sit 13th on the ladder with a 2-9 win-loss record ahead of a bottom-of-the-table clash with Eastern Suns on Saturday.