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Kalamunda Eastern Suns, Mandurah Magic, MSBL News, Results Wraps, SBL
Round 2 Spotlight: Mandurah on the board with Kalamunda win
**Posted on** Mar 25, 2019

AFTER being overrun twice in the opening round of the Men’s SBL season, it was the Mandurah Magic finishing strongly with a 52-point to 28 second half to beat the Kalamunda Eastern Suns 95-79 on Saturday night.

The Magic began their season with two losses in the opening round away to Lakeside and at home to Kalamunda, but against the Lightning they had led by nine points at three quarter-time and were within two with a couple of minutes remaining against the Suns.

So the performances weren’t as bad as the 0-2 start looked but the Suns too came into Saturday night’s clash at Ray Owen Sports Centre determined to respond to Sunday’s home-opening 33-point loss to the Goldfields Giants after that win in Mandurah the night before.

The Eastern Suns then started well enough on their home floor on Saturday night leading Mandurah 22-19 by quarter-time and still being up 51-43 by half-time and seemingly in control of the contest.

But things all changed after half-time with the Magic putting together some impressive basketball at both ends of the floor.

Their defensive intensity rose and on the back of that they held Kalamunda to just 28 points for the entire second half.

Shaun Stewart then found the right balance between taking his own shots and using his extensive skill set to make plays for his teammates with the Magic putting up 52 points of their own to go from eight points down at the half to winning by 16.

Mandurah ended up reeling in 19 offensive rebounds for 19 second chance points on top of scoring 48 points in the paint as well as forcing the Suns into 20 turnovers.

It was quite a good shooting night from both teams with the Magic going at 50 per cent from the field and 34 per cent from three with the Suns ending up at 46 per cent from the floor and 34 per cent from three. But Mandurah took seven more shots and got to the line 13 more times.

Magic coach Aaron Trahair saw some encouraging signs in the opening round, but was much happier with the way his group responded after half-time on Saturday night for their first win of 2019.

“Even last week I was really proud of the boys, Friday in particular when we played really well before we got a bit tired unfortunately in the fourth quarter,” Trahair said.

“Marvin cramped up, Shaun was exhausted and unfortunately we got ran over in that last quarter after holding a nine-point lead at three quarter-time.

“Then to be honest I was a little disappointed the way we backed up the next night against Kalamunda but fatigue might have again been a bit of a factor even though we were only two points down with two minutes to go and were still in a position to win the game.

“But this week, I wasn’t overly impressed with the first half where we came out a little bit flat and soft, and they wanted it more than us.

“That was the word I was trying to get into them at half-time and to their credit they responded to hold them to 28 points and run over the top of them. That was really impressive and hopefully will hold us in good stead going forward.”

Shaun Stewart again had an outstanding night for Mandurah with 34 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and five steals on shooting 11/22 from the field and 10/12 from the free-throw line.

Slammers recruit Travis Durnin stepped up too for 23 points, five rebounds, two assists and two blocks including hitting 5/10 from three-point range.

Akau Deng played 33 minutes for 14 points and seven rebounds with Marvin Smith contributing 12 points, six boards, two assists and two steals despite being limited to 20 minutes with foul trouble.

Cousteau Kyle was another player to emerge with eight points, six rebounds and six assists.

In the end, the ability of Stewart to create for his teammates and for more Magic players step up was what pleased Trahair the most.

“It’s not rocket science, that is the key to us going forward. Shaun’s going to have his nights where he goes off and he is a heck of a talent, and he’s always going to get his,” Trahair said.

“But when you have Trav chipping in with 20, Akau getting to double-figures and Steau was outstanding again tonight on both ends of the court, all those things that contribute to us being a more well-rounded team.

“Defensively I’m always pretty confident that if we can hold teams to 80 that we have enough firepower to get that ourselves. It’s a huge difference when those extra guys provide that scoreboard pressure.”

Import guard Josh Braun couldn’t have done much more for Kalamunda finishing with 33 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals on shooting 12/22 from the field, 5/12 from deep and 4/4 at the charity stripe.

Louis Timms had 15 points, five rebounds, five blocks, four assists and two steals for the Eastern Suns with Logan Viskovich adding 11 points, and Ryan Blanchett nine points and five rebounds.

New Suns coach Mark Utley was disappointed in his team’s showing especially to be beaten in the hustle areas in the second half coming off last Sunday’s loss to Goldfields.

“I’m very disappointed. On Sunday we just shot the ball poorly, we were 1/22 for people other than Braun from the three-point line and I think we’re not actually a bad shooting team. We just couldn’t buy a basket,” Utley said.

“But this was one of those games that got away from us. We gave away too many offensive rebounds in the last quarter and it’s just not good enough at this level. As I said to the guys, we’re sort of playing like we’re superstars and we need to get down and work harder. Simple as that.”

Kalamunda is back on the road to face the Willetton Tigers on Friday night before hosting the Geraldton Buccaneers on Saturday. Mandurah is back home to take on the East Perth Eagles on Saturday.

The Magic began their season with two losses on the opening round away to Lakeside and at home to Kalamunda, but against the Lightning they had led by nine points at three quarter-time and were within two with a couple of minutes remaining against the Suns.