Slammers defence ‘back to basics’

Ahead of Saturday night’s West Coast Classic match-up against the East Perth Eagles in Perth, Printsync South West Slammers men’s coach Mark Worthington has been keen to keep things simple at practice. “We had to get back to basics almost this week on the defensive end,” he said. “We (the coaches) let them know that the defensive effort was not acceptable against Warwick. But there were still a lot of positives to take from the game. “Our younger brigade are also doing an excellent job as well. Not only are we doing well with the SBL (West Coast Classic) stuff, but the under-18s are carrying it over to their WABL games on Sunday. “I think Leigh Rickwood-Pitt had 36 points on Sunday — and for that to be his third game in three days, that is exceptional.” The Slammers will need to tightly guard Eagles skipper Shaquille Maharaj, who dropped a game-high 36 points against the Magic last week. Scouting report (East Perth Eagles) Form: The Eagles surprisingly fell 94-90 against the youthful Mandurah Magic on the road last week, in which they only managed to score seven points in overtime. Despite the loss, they shot a respectable 28/49 (57 per cent) inside, along with 10/12 (83 per cent) from the charity stripe. League position: 8th; home record: 1-1; away record: 0-1; last round: lost to Mandurah Magic 94-90. Key stat: The Eagles scored 44 points from their bench players, which helped counter the impact of 24 team turnovers for the game.