THE Goldfields Giants have never lost to the Kalamunda Eastern Suns and they do not want to start now.

In five meetings since Kalamunda joined the State Basketball League last season, the Giants have won every game, including last Saturday’s 99-87 victory which gave them a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three quarter-finals series.

The reigning SBL champions can book their spot in the semi-finals with victory tonight at Kalgoorlie’s Niels Hansen Basketball Stadium. Game three, if required, will be played tomorrow at noon.

“We’re looking to wrap it up on Saturday,” Giants coach Stephen Charlton said.

“We don’t want to play on Sunday, but obviously not everything always goes to plan. It would be an ideal scenario for us to win and move on.”

Goldfields cruised to victory in game one courtesy of imports Michael Haney and Alonzo Hird, who combined for 55 points.

Hird had 22 points, shooting 79 per cent from the field, as well as pulling down 19 rebounds.

It underlined the Giants’ dominance in the keyway, with 60 points in the paint compared to Kalamunda’s 28. The rebound count was also heavily in the Giants’ favour, 60-41.

“It’s definitely an area where we have an advantage,” Charlton said. “We have a very good inside game and we need to capitalise on that every chance we get.” “I’m sure they’ve worked on it during the week and they will come out hard and it won’t be as easy as last week.”

The Giants will also want to keep the clamps on Kalamunda trump card Adrian Majstrovich. Haney linked up with Mark Heron and Matt Leske to restrict the former NBL forward to just 14 points last Saturday when he went five-of-23 from the field.

Majstrovich is by far Kalamunda’s leading scorer and went into the match with hauls of 42, 42, 28, 43 and 39 points in his past five games.

“I thought we did a good job on him,” Charlton said. “AJ missed a few shots he would normally hit and I thought giving him 23 shots was too many, even though they run a lot of their plays through him.” “We’ve got to make it tough for him again. Defensively he’s going to be a focus for us and offensively he’s their key.”

Charlton is looking for an improved performance from guard Ryan Hulme, who shot 1-of-10 from the field in game one.

“I spoke with the assistant coaches after the game and it’s a good sign for us that one of our starters can have an off night and we can still get away with a win,” Charlton said.“We expect Ryan to play better than that and that gives us an automatic lift across the court. There is definitely improvement in us from last weekend.”

Charlton also tipped captain Shamus Ballantyne, who had 10 assists but just four points in game one, would be near his best after a sharp week at training.

“He had a quiet game but a good game,” Charlton said. “He didn’t shoot as well as he normally does, but he still had his 10 assists and was one of the reasons we got going.”

“Hopefully we can get him back to that level because when your point guard is playing well, you’re always a big chance.”

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