South West Slammers women’s side push Mandurah Magic before heavy defeat to Beeliar Boodjar (Cockburn Cougars)

South West Slammers women’s side had two contrasting losses at the weekend, pushing Mandurah Magic to the final buzzer before being smashed by ladder-leaders Beeliar Boodjar (Cockburn Cougars). The much-improved side produced another competitive showing in an eventual 11-point defeat to the fifth-placed Magic at Eaton Recreation Centre on Friday but found the going much tougher in a 62-point defeat to the unbeaten Cougars at Wally Hagan Stadium on Saturday. Having gone without a win in the seven games since their second victory of the season on May 17, the Slammers remain in 13th spot on the ladder. A defeat at the hands of the Cougars which was their heaviest of the season has worsened their percentage to 76.50 but that mark still represents a significant improvement on recent seasons. Import Mykea Gray continued a standout season with another pair of excellent performances over the two games, scoring 28 points while playing all 40 minutes of the loss to the Magic and backing up with another 35 minutes against the Cougars where she scored 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds. But in what has been a familiar story of their season, they struggled to get enough offensive output from their other players — captain Zaya Black (17 points) and the side’s other import Cayla King (10 points) were the only other Slammers to score in double digits against the Magic and none aside from Gray reached that mark in the second game. Against Mandurah, the Slammers were kept afloat by some good shooting from the perimeter which saw them make 10 of their 25 three-point attempts but they found the going tougher inside the three-point arc, where they converted only 13 of their 32 attempts. The Slammers opened up a seven-point lead at quarter-time on the back of a strong first term but the Magic responded by outscoring their hosts by 11 points to take a four-point advantage into the main break. After a second half which had been closely contested, newly-acquired veteran Sarah Cannell scored some second-chance points from an offensive rebound to cut the Slammers’ gap back to a solitary point as the game entered the final five minutes. But the visitors were able to respond by closing the game out on a 14-4 run to secure their ninth victory of the season, with imports Tina Stephens (24 points, 11 rebounds, five assists) and Grace Berg (24 points, six rebounds) leading the way. A seriously ugly night looked on the cards for the Slammers in the second game of their double-header after they started the contest by conceding the game’s first 24 points and headed for quarter-time behind by 37 after giving up 48 in total. Though the result had been all but sealed, the visitors produced a far more competitive effort across the remaining three quarters, including in a second term where they produced a 9-0 run and were only outscored by four points.