South West Slammers men’s side losing streak out to 11 games after 13-point loss to Perry Lakes Hawks

The losing streak of South West Slammers men’s side to open the NBL1 West season has grown to 11 games on the back of a 13-point loss to Perry Lakes Hawks at Bendat Basketball Centre on Saturday night. After a slow start, the Slammers were largely competitive across the course of the night, heading for the final interval trailing by only six points. A Jamal Poplar and-one as the clock ticked into the final five minutes cut the gap back to four points, where it was kept by Nathan Walsh drilling a three-pointer with less than three minutes to go. But as the Slammers’ offence stalled out in the closing stages, the Hawks took control of the contest, scoring the game’s final nine points to secure a 96-83 win. With their season now at the midway point, the Slammers remain rooted to the bottom of the ladder, owning the competition’s worst defence and fourth-worst offence by points per game. In the pre-season, coach Jason Chalk set the side a goal of returning to the play-offs for the first time since 2017 but they now sit five wins back of the eighth-placed Hawks. Star centre Jamal Poplar fouled out of the game for the second week running, playing only 23 minutes where he scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds before being forced to make an early exit in the final minutes. Captain Devan Craig (18 points, five rebounds) led all the Slammers’ scorers to continue a strong season and was particularly effective on the inside, making seven of his eight field goal attempts from inside the paint. Chalk again looked to shuffle his line-up for the clash, with Gavin Deacon promoted to the starting five in place of Pharell Keats. The teenage guard justified the move by scoring nine points and handing out five assists in just over 23 minutes of court time, and Nathan Walsh (10 points, five rebounds) was another young Slammer to perform strongly. The Slammers started the contest in glacial fashion, with Chalk calling for time after watching his side fall into an early 15-2 deficit. In a see-sawing first half, the visitors responded strongly to tie the contest in the back end of the first quarter before the hosts reasserted themselves to take a 12-point lead in the middle stages of the second term, which settled at five points at the main break.