Standout showing from Jamal Poplar not enough to see South West Slammers to victory over Willetton Tigers

Another sparkling performance from star import Jamal Poplar was not enough to see South West Slammers’ men’s side to victory in the last game of their NBL1 West season — in a 17-point loss to Willetton Tigers at Eaton Recreation Centre on Friday night. Despite Poplar scoring 36 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, the fourth-placed Tigers proved too good for their hosts across the course of the night, winning 109-92. Poplar closed out his first campaign with the Slammers as the league’s third-leading scorer at an average of 25.3 points per game, behind only the runner up in the league’s most valuable player award Elijah Pepper and its winner Isaac White. He finished just shy of averaging a double-double but still came in as the league’s fifth-most prolific rebounder at a rate of 9.95 per contest. Retiring stalwart Cory Richardson scored 17 points after being elevated to the starting line-up alongside Clive Weeden (eight points), who last week told the Herald he had not yet made a final decision on whether the game would be his last in Slammers colours. Richardson connected on five of his trademark three-pointers in the final term — including one from well beyond the three-point line in the closing seconds — to give the home crowd something to cheer about despite the result’s inevitability. A Slammers season where they won only one of their 22 games — representing a significant step back from their six-victory season in 2024 — has now come to a close, finishing on the bottom of the ladder for the first time since 2022. As they have been for much of the campaign, the Slammers were competitive and within a few baskets of the lead for much of the night, with a 10-1 run through the middle stages of the third term cutting their deficit back to five points. But the visitors responded with their own 11-0 run to take a 16-point advantage into the final break as the Slammers’ defensive issues again reared their head, going on to concede a triple-digit score for the sixth game running and their 13th in total for the year.