The Lakeside Lightning have a massive 18 hours from Friday night to Saturday afternoon with back-to-back clashes against fourth-placed East Perth and second-placed Perry Lakes with their lead on top of the men's SBL table on the line.

The Week 16 action begins on Friday night with the Collie Crane Hire South West Slammers hosting the Kalamunda Eastern Suns, Rockingham Flames battling the BOQ Perth Redbacks and the People's Choice Eagles host the Lakeside Lightning.

The Lightning then host the Perry Lakes Hawks on Saturday afternoon while on Saturday night, the Silver Lake Resources Goldfields Giants battle the defending champion Cockburn Cougars.

Also on Saturday night, the Kalamunda Eastern Suns host the Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers, the Australian Belt Scrapers Wanneroo Wolves play the Rockingham Flames and the Southlands Boulevarde Willetton Tigers host the Mandurah Magic.

There is just the one game to close out Week 16 on Sunday afternoon with the Stirling Senators hosting the Geraldton Buccaneers.

Starting with the Friday night games, the South West Slammers host the Kalamunda Eastern Suns at Easton Recreation Centre with the Slammers looking to snap a three-game losing streak against the bottom-placed Suns.

The Rockingham Flames sit on a 7-12 record in 11th position and face a big task against the 12-8, fifth-placed Perth Redbacks at Mike Barnett Sports Complex.

Then the East Perth Eagles host the Lakeside Lightning at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.

The Eagles snapped a four-game losing run to beat the Goldfields Giants last Saturday to maintain fourth position with a 12-8 record, but their job on Saturday is a massive one against the 16-3 top-of-the-table Lightning.

Despite having lost just three games all season, two of Lakeside's losses have come in the past three games so the Lightning have the chance to extend their gap on top or come back to the pack with not only their clash with the Eagles on Friday, but backing up on Saturday.

The Lightning host the second-placed Perry Lakes Hawks at Lakeside Recreation Centre at 2pm on Saturday afternoon. The Hawks might have lost coach Shawn Dennis but have won three straight matches to continue to be putting pressure on the Lightning from second position.

Saturday's night action also sees some massive clashes with the Goldfields Giants hosting the Cockburn Cougars at Neils Hansen Basketball Stadium.

The Giants are struggling in second last spot at 5-15 with just one win at home so far this season while the defending champion Cougars have now strung four wins together to climb up to a 8-12 record to be in 10th spot but closing in on a spot in the top-eight.

The Suns then bounce back from trekking to Eaton on Friday to host the Geraldton Buccaneers at Ray Owen Sports Centre on Saturday night. Kalamunda's three wins have all come at home this season while Geraldton is in terrific form and looking to maintain third spot in the standings.

Kalamunda will also have the added motivation of celebrating Russell Haxby's 250th game in the SBL.

The Wanneroo Wolves beat Kalamunda last Sunday but had lost three straight matches prior to that to slip to a 10-10 record to only be holding onto a spot in the eight. The Wolfpack host the 11th-placed Rockingham Flames at Joondalup Basketball Stadium on Saturday night.

The Willetton Tigers lost twice last weekend to slip to a 10-9 record to be holding onto seventh position and they take on the 11-8 Mandurah Magic on Saturday night at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

The only Sunday match sees the 12th placed Stirling Senators host the third-placed Geraldton Buccaneers at Warwick Leisure Centre.

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Grant Lauterbach (Car Stereo)