Basketball: Slammers’ Rooster crows again

Despite two hefty defeats at the weekend, the Collie Crane Hire South West Slammers’ fans still had something to cheer about.

Picture by Jon Gellweiler: South West Slammers’ captain Trent Worthington cuts a dejected figure on Saturday night after going down with an injury in the opening minute of his side’s loss to Perth

Lee ‘‘Rooster’’ Smith made an SBL comeback on Saturday night as the Slammers went down to Perth by 33 points.

Smith, 34, was a surprise inclusion in the Slammers’ side playing 31 minutes for a return of six points and seven boards against the Redbacks.

The towering forward is a championship player at the club but has not played regularly since the 2005 season.

Saturday night’s loss was South West’s second of theweekafter they went down to Mandurah by 18 points on Thursday night.

Smith might not be the only legend to return to the court with coach Greg Worthington suggesting games record holder, championship player, and former captain Aaron Edwards would make a comeback this weekend.

Worthington said he had ‘‘kept the door open’’ when the duo approached him about the possibility of playing again several weeks ago.

‘‘They see a gap between young players and senior players and they want to try and fill that void,’’

‘‘We sat down and stressed what their role was. They just saw that they could add value for us. Edwards and Smith had been training with the club over the preseason, Worthington revealed.

‘‘These blokes have been legends of the club,’’ he said.

‘‘You can just see the younger blokes feed off them. They thrive on having them around.’’

The return of experienced heads to the court could not come at a more appropriate time for the side, who are likely to bewithout captain Trent Worthington for their two matches this weekend due to injury.

Worthington rolled his ankle in the opening minute of Saturday night’s clash and was rated by his coach as being ‘‘very unlikely’’ to play when South West take on Cockburn in Perth on Friday night, and Kalamunda Eastern Suns at the Eaton Recreation Centre on Saturday.

Against Mandurah, South West trailed by just one point at quarter time but fell behind in a disastrous end to the second quarter saw them head for the rooms behind 57-44.

Despite going on a third-quarter run, the Slammers were unable to make serious inroads into the gap.

Hulking forward Tom Remerswaal was unstoppable for the home side, scoring 43 points.

Imports Taylor Land and Talor Mullenax both chimed in with hauls of 12 points, as did 36-year-old former NBL utility Aaron Trahair and Andrew Bowman.

For the Slammers, Carlos White was impressive with 24 points and 13 rebounds and Senario Hillman scored 15 points.

Guard Anton Fimmano played more than a half and hit two threepointers n a haul of 14 — easily the 19-year-old’s best performance in his two seasons on the Slammers’ roster.

On Saturday night, South West were outclassed by one of the 2012 title fancies.

White (26 points, 19 rebounds) and Hillman (21 points) were standouts for the home side.

The Slammers struggled to contain Perth star Ryan Neill, who sunk five bombs from outside the arc in his 38-point hall.