It was a night of mixed results in two terrific contests for the Cockburn Cougars against the Mandurah Magic on Saturday night in Round 5 of the NBL1 West competition.
It was a tremendous performance to open up the evening at Wally Hagan Stadium with the Cougars women handing the Mandurah Magic their first defeat of the 2022 season, willing 105-93.
Meanwhile in the men’s contest to follow, it was Mandurah who recorded the 93-67 victory on the road.
The Cougars will now hit the road in Round 6 of the 2022 NBL1 West season taking on the Perth Redbacks at Belmont Oasis on Saturday evening.
Starting with the women’s clash on Saturday, the Cougars came into the game having won three of their four matches so far this season while the Magic had won their opening four matches setting the stage for a tantalising match up at Wally Hagan Stadium.
The Cougars also welcomed Alina Hartmann into the line-up for her first game of the season with the Magic also unveiling Sarah Toeaina.
Mandurah was looking to keep its unbeaten start to the season going and started well to lead 27-25 by quarter-time, but Cockburn was able to turn it on in the second term with 33 points to go into half-time leading 58-50.
The Cougars continued on the momentum with another 27 points to 16 in the third quarter. That saw them set up a match-winning lead and then withstand the 27 points in the final term from Mandurah to still win 105-93.
Jessie Edwards proved the dominant player on the floor delivering 36 points, 13 rebounds and two assists for the Cougars on 13/18 shooting from the field and 10/11 from the free-throw line.
Kat Tudor hit 5/6 from three-point range for 19 points, four rebounds and three assists as well for the Cougars while Alina Hartmann played her first game of the season for 16 points, five boards and five assists on 4/6 from beyond the arc.
Jewel Williams also finished with 22 points, seven assists, four rebounds and two steals with Tia Morgan contributing eight points and six rebounds.
Then in the men’s clash, the Magic welcomed back Jay Bowie on Saturday night for the clash with the Cougars and Wally Hagan Stadium and they produced a mighty impressive performance.
Cockburn was on its home floor and were coming off their first loss of the season last week in Geraldton, and started strongly to lead the Magic 27-22 by the end of the opening quarter.
While Mandurah outscored Cockburn 21 points to 19 in the second quarter, it was still the Cougars leading 46-43 by half-time.
It was all the Magic in the second half, however, with the visitors outscoring the Cougars 24 points to seven in the third quarter, and 26 points to 14 in the fourth to end up with the impressive 93-67 win.
The result improves Mandurah to 4-2 on the season while Cockburn is now also 4-2 on the back of the two consecutive losses.
Carter Skaggs finished with 14 points and six rebounds for the Cougars on 4/13 shooting from beyond the arc with Gavid Field adding 14 points and five assists, and Seva Chan 13 points and seven assists.
