Eagles Preview – Heritage Round

It's Heritage Round in the NBL1 West with the East Perth Eagles out to celebrate the occasion firstly at home to the Perth Redbacks on Friday night, and then heading to Kalgoorlie to take on the Goldfields Giants on Sunday.

Heritage Round for the Eagles gets underway on Friday night on Peter Campbell Basketball Arena at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre up against the Perth Redbacks. The women's clash begins at 6.30pm followed by the men's encounter at 8.30pm.

Then with the WA Day long weekend, it's a Sunday evening in Kalgoorlie for the Eagles as well up against the Goldfields Giants with the women's match beginning at 5.30pm followed by the men's match up at 7.30pm.

WOMEN

The East Perth Eagles scored a memorable win last Friday night and will now be looking to keep that momentum going this week starting on Friday against the Perth Redbacks.

It was a second win of the season last Friday night for the Eagles, but it was certainly the most significant considering it was against a powerful Joondalup Wolves team at HBF Arena.

It was a memorable win for East Perth too who were behind most of the evening but stormed home with a run of scoring 16 points to just six from Joondalup in the final three minutes to turn a six-point deficit into the four-point victory.

There were all sorts of heroics including big three-point shots from Sarah Allen before and after having her tooth go through her bottom lip while Laci Hawthorne finished with a dominant 29 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

To do that against one of the top teams in the league signifies what this East Perth team is capable of in 2024 despite the current 2-7 record coming into the round ahead across the WA Day long weekend.

It now looms as a double-header this weekend for the Eagles where they can make a further statement and put themselves right back in the playoff mix.

It gets underway on Friday night on Peter Campbell Basketball Arena against the Redbacks with the two old rivals locking horns as part of the NBL1 Heritage Round.

The two teams did already meet earlier this season with the Redbacks beating the Eagles 92-74 at Belmont Oasis, but that a tough night for East Perth without Mary Goulding and with Anneli Maley fresh into the Redbacks team.

It does shape up now as a fascinating match up with the Redbacks coming into the contest having built some momentum with three successive victories led by Maley and Natalie Chou with Brooke Malone and Shenae Hartree continuing their growth.

There's always some added feeling when the two teams meet with Eagles coach Craig Allen formerly in charge at the Redbacks while Bri Bailey, Sarah Allen, Taylor Roberts, Ella Dimanlig and Cameron Flynn have all played previously for Perth too.

The stage is all set for a terrific match up on Friday night before the Eagles then prepare to head to Kalgoorlie to take on the Goldfields Giants on Sunday evening leading into the WA Day public holiday on Monday.

It will be the first time the two teams have met this season and going back to last year, the two clashes both took place in the first half of the season so it has now been more than 12 months since the Eagles have played the Giants.

The games last year saw East Perth record two of its five wins for the season starting in Kalgoorlie on April 22 with the 75-57 victory before backing up at Mirrabooka with the 81-55 win on May 20.

The Eagles will now be looking to keep that winning run going in Kalgoorlie on Saturday evening with the Giants also having a double-header weekend where they play host to the Rockingham Flames first on Saturday night.

Goldfields comes into the round with a 2-8 record on the season and having lost five of its past six matches, but with a team not without talent led by German imports Lauren Fech and Anne Zipser along with Jhazmin Joson from the Philippines.

MEN

Despite a slip up to the defending champions on Sunday, the East Perth Eagles remain one of the form teams of the NBL1 West men's competition heading into a tantalising weekend double.

The Eagles currently sit in sixth position in the standings coming into Round 10 of the season with a 6-5 record and having won four of the past five matches still to have built some impressive momentum.

Despite a loss at home last Sunday to the Geraldton Buccaneers, East Perth scored the terrific win two days earlier beating the Joondalup Wolves 95-86 at HBF Arena in a commanding display.

That was led by 31 points and 13 rebounds from Sebit Reath, 22 points and five boards from Taylor Young, and 16 points, six rebounds and four assists from 156-game NBL veteran and 2014 championship winning guard Sunday Dech.

It now shapes as a weekend across the WA Day long weekend where the Eagles can signal their intentions as genuine contenders for the rest of the season against two teams sitting in the bottom part of the standings.

First up for the Eagles is hosting the Perth Redbacks at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre on Friday night with East Perth looking for a measure of revenge on the heartbreaking one-point win at the death at Belmont Oasis back on April 13 this year.

East Perth didn’t have former Redbacks Lee Roberts and Jerami Grace against their old team in that earlier season match up but both will be in Eagles colours this Friday night.

The Redbacks enter Round 10 of the NBL1 West holding a 4-9 record and having lost three straight, but with the potential of Joe Cook-Green returning and a team featuring Miles Gibson, Tevin Jackson and Ioannis Dimakopoulos they can't be taken lightly.

Once that Friday night match up is done, East Perth will turn its attention to the trip to Kalgoorlie to take on the Goldfields Giants on Sunday night.

It will be the first time that the Eagles have played the Giants since May 20 last year where they lost at Herb Graham Recreation Centre by six points. That came after a loss by 30 points earlier in the season in Kalgoorlie.

The two teams also only met once in 2022 which saw the Giants win at Mirrabooka also by 32 points while Goldfields won both meetings as well in 2021 along with a 17-point victory in the last game of the West Coast Classic of 2020.

The Giants also beat the Eagles twice in 2019 but East Perth did win both encounters of 2018.

So coming into the Sunday night trip to Kalgoorlie, the Eagles will arrive looking for a first win over the Giants since 2018 and in the Goldfields since that same season, and to end an eight-game losing run against them.

However, having won in Geraldton for the first time since 2014 and against the Buccaneers for the first time since 2016 only three weeks ago, and the Eagles will look to come back after another successful away trip.