Buccs face biggest challenge in Wolves

The S&K Electrical Geraldton Buccaneers will face their biggest test of the season so far when they take on undefeated reigning champions the Joondalup Wolves at Activewest Stadium tomorrow night.

The Wolves started their campaign by demolishing their grand final opponents from last year, the South West Slammers, by 58 points before easing to a 113-106 victory against the Rockingham Flames last Thursday.

One player who knows all too well about the dangerous Wolves roster is veteran import Carter Cook, who said their depth was one of their real strengths.

“They’re always a tough team to play — they knocked us out of the playoffs my first season, so I’ve always been kind of bitter towards them after that,” he said.

“They go about 10 deep so they take the first five out and put the next five in and they’re just as tough … so that’s a real advantage for them.”

Cook, who caught fire after a quiet first half against the Redbacks, also said the Buccs could not continue the slow starts that had hurt them so far this season.

“Me being a leader on the team, I’m definitely going to have to come out stronger and I’ll hold myself more accountable this game about coming out strong in the first half,” he said.

“If we get off to a slow start against them, they’ll make us pay and it’ll be much harder to get back into the game … and that’s something we can’t afford to do against them.”

Mat Wundenberg failed to train on Tuesday and the Buccs are likely to be without their star captain again as he struggles to get over a niggling Achilles injury.

His absence has forced a role change for several players within the team, but coach Aaron Trahair said he would rather his big man be 100 per cent at the business end of the season than push himself to come back to early.

Trahair also said they would be looking to shut down the Wolves’ main playmakers to make it harder for the rest of their squad to get into the game.

“The heartbeat of their whole team is probably Trian Iliadis and Seb Salinas … they’re the two guys that are probably the keys for them getting up and going,” he said.

“We’ll be doing our best to make other guys beat us to try to contain those two in particular.”

Tip off is set for 7.30pm, and Trahair and Cook have urged locals to show up in force.

“I just want to say how good the crowd was last weekend … and hopefully everybody will show up on tomorrow night and just make a lot of noise because we really need it,” Cook said.