Basketball: Slammers unable to hang on

The South West Slammers’ inability to construct four quarters of basketball has again been highlighted after costly lapses in both their Friday and Saturday night fixtures at the weekend served as the catalyst for a pair of losses.

The Slammers, winless in their five games this season, came agonisingly close to breaking their duck on Friday, going down by 12 points to reigning SBL champions Willetton.

They will be left to rue an abominable first half where they trailed by as much as 28 points late in the second quarter, before a post-half time surge saw them get back in the game and shave the margin to four points with three minutes to play.

Meanwhile, a costly second quarter lapse on Saturday in which the Slammers were outscored 34-15 by Perry Lakes again highlighted the inconsistency issues of the side.

Trailing by 19 points at half time, South West were held at arms length thereafter on their way to an 18-point defeat, 95-77.

Coach Carl Catalano was at a loss to explain his side’s miserable second quarter against the Hawks post match.

‘‘We didn’t do the right things in the second quarter,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s hard to pinpoint. It’s tough to put your finger on it.

‘‘We didn’t shoot well, our shot selection wasn’t good and then we just couldn’t stop them — they scored 34 points in the second quarter.

‘‘That’s 20 points difference, there’s the game.’’

On Friday night South West unveiled a surprisenewsigning in burly point-guard Sam Fotu — a former Willetton player — who debuted for the Slammers against his old club.

Forward Tyler Hickert also played his first game for the season and had an immediate impact, knocking up 17 points on Friday night and 13 on Saturday.

For the Tigers, Robert Kampman (25 points) and Mark Jones (21 points) starred.

Ten final quarter points to star import Nick Freer made sure things went down to the wire at Eaton, but it wasn’t enough.

Freer finished with 25 points on Friday night and 28 on Saturday.

After being well out of the game at the long break, the 25-year-old hit a trio of third quarter threepointers keep the Slammers in the contest on Saturday, while a halfcourt bomb on the three-quarter time buzzer from Cory Richardson ensured that South West won the period.

But they were unable to make any meaningful headway into the Hawks’ lead.

Perry Lakes recruit Anthony Lee dominated with 35 points and 14 rebounds on the night.