THE Goldfields Giants survived a thrilling over-time battle on Saturday to beat the East Perth Eagles by eight points.

The local combination had earlier coughed up a 13-point lead at three-quarter-time to be locked with the Eagles 88-88 before regaining their poise and eventually handing the visitors their sixth consecutive loss, 107-99.

But Giants coach Stephen Charlton said his team had to do something to stop a recent run of fade-outs in games.
“We can’t play a whole game,” Charlton said.

“You can try and sugar coat it, but at the end of the day we’re making bad decisions and going through lapses.
“We’re not going to win a championship if we keep giving teams a chance to beat us.”

A composed performance from the foul line by Matt Leske (20 points, eight rebounds) ultimately iced the game for the Giants after some classy work from two of the Eagles’ big men.

East Perth swingmen Stephen Weigh (24 points, 10 rebounds) and Ben Thompson (28 points, 11 rebounds) kept their team in touch throughout the game with quality shooting all over the court.

The Giants played some thrilling basketball after tip-off, piling on 17 points before the Eagles had registered a score.

Giants captain and 250-gamer Shamus Ballantyne was introduced late in the first quarter and, despite being a bit rusty after four weeks on the sidelines, showed just how classy he is, registering seven assists to half-time.

Ryan Hulme hit some big three-pointers to help the Giants to a 19-point lead going into the second quarter.
East Perth were looking for answers and they started to come through Weigh, who created some big plays to keep his team in touch.

But the most exciting passages of play in the second quarter came from an unlikely source in Giants player Lewis Mann, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

The third quarter was when East Perth started to come alive, whittling the lead back to eight points with some solid defensive pressure giving the Giants no space to move.

The scene was set for a big last quarter and the crowd was not let down, with both teams battling it out to bring the lead back to three points.

Tempers were flaring as Thompson’s quality from the three-point line headed a strong charge from East Perth to square the game up and take it to overtime.

His efforts gave East Perth a real chance as they ended regular time at 88-88.

But the over-time period was all the home team as Leske and Heron brought it home from the foul line to settle the line-up and fight off the Eagles.

“(We are) happy to come out and win a tough one,” Charlton said.

“But taking nothing away from East Perth, when you’re 14 up at half-time you shouldn’t go to over-time if you’re a good team.”

The Giants are now gearing up for next weekend’s gruelling road triple-header against Mandurah, Bunbury and Perth.

Article by Nick Rynne (Kalgoorlie Miner)
Photo by Travis Anderson - Andmedia/Sports Vision © 2009.