Eagles Preview – Round 15

It's First Nations Round in the NBL1 this weekend and for the East Perth Eagles it means an away clash on Saturday to the Perry Lakes Hawks with the results crucial to both the women's and men's teams.

There's now just three weeks remaining in the 2024 NBL1 West for the season so if the Eagles women want to make playoffs, they need to get winning, and should the men want to reach the top four, they need to get back to winning as well.

Both East Perth teams are coming off a loss last week at home to the Kalamunda Eastern Suns but they now take on the Hawks on Saturday at Bendat Basketball Centre.

The women's match gets underway at 5pm followed by the men's match up at 7pm.

WOMEN

The East Perth Eagles women now don't have too much room for error over the last three weeks of the season starting on Saturday on the road to the fourth placed Perry Lakes Hawks.

With the loss at home to the Eastern Suns last Friday night, the Eagles now come into the last three weeks of the regular season in the NBL1 West with a 5-11 record to be two wins behind the eighth placed Mandurah Magic.

That means to be still a chance to reach the finals a win on Saturday against the Hawks is a must but it won't be easy with Perry Lakes sitting in fourth position on a 12-5 record.

With the Hawks also needing to keep winning to maintain their own hold on a top four position and they also have plenty of motivation to claim the win on their home floor on Saturday evening.

The game will be the second time the two teams have played one another this season with the first meeting taking place back on April 20 at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.

That saw the Hawks beat the Eagles 87-79 despite Mary Goulding delivering 25 points and 16 rebounds for East Perth. Laci Hawthorne also had 12 points and 20 rebounds, Tessa Morrison 12 points, four boards and three assists, Mary Baskerville 10 points five rebounds and three assists, and Bri Bailey 10 points and four boards.

East Perth now has four games of the regular season remaining beginning with Saturday's away game to Perry Lakes. There's then a double-header next weekend at home to Willetton and away to Rockingham before a last up home clash with the Goldfields Giants.

A winning run needs to start now for the Eagles against the Hawks with guard Jaymie Symons excited for the match up and to take on some former teammates especial ex-East Perth captain Eryn Fisher.

"I’m really excited to play against Perry Lakes, I think they’re a really strong team and will challenge us!," Symons said.

"There’s a couple old east Perth players there I’m excited to see and play against. Eryn is a great player and has played at college and NBL1 level, I began my SBL journey with her back in 2017/18, she was a player I leaned towards as I saw her game play and could see I could challenge myself learning from her. It’ll be great to see her on the court again!"

MEN

The East Perth Eagles have the chance to close back in on a top four position when they take on the Perry Lakes Hawks at Bendat Basketball Centre on Saturday.

The Eagles dropped to fifth position with last Friday night's loss at home to the Eastern Suns but now have to bounce back on Saturday against the Hawks if they want to maintain hope of breaking back into a top four spot over the last three weeks of the regular season.

East Perth comes into the Round 15 match up with an 11-7 record but to be just one win behind the Mandurah Magic but with a game in hand so in a lot of ways destiny is still in the hands of the Eagles with three weeks to go.

While it's a crucial game for the top four prospects of the Eagles, it's equally important for Perry Lakes who now have to win out the rest of the way to be any hope of breaking back into the top eight.

The Hawks have now lost their past five matches to be three games outside a playoff spot at 7-12, but with a team featuring imports Dequan Abrom and Jaylen Key while possessing Luke and Keegan Phillips, and Matt Leary and they can't be taken lightly.

Last time the two teams played was back on April 20 this year and it was a 96-69 win at Peter Campbell Basketball Arena for the Eagles.

On that night, Sebit Reath had 18 points, three rebounds and two assists, Taylor Young 18 points, 11 assists and seven boards, David Okwera 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Sharif Watson eight points, 11 boards and three assists.

Sunday Dech had 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists, and while he's no longer with the Eagles as he prepares to represent South Sudan at the Paris Olympic Games, Lukas Milner and Lee Roberts are in who didn’t play that night.

Eagles coach Carl Filpo hopes that his team learned some tough lessons from the way they allowed the Eastern Suns to get hot early last Friday night, and get put that into practice in a crucial game with Perry Lakes on Saturday.

"There's been some big talk this week about how important this game is on Saturday and I know this sounds really cliché, but we have to take it one game at a time," Filpo said.

"It's a huge opportunity and we're gunning for that top four spot, we make no mistake about that. This is our first time making finals in 10 years for the men's team and that's great and is a load off our shoulders, but we're deadset focused on making the top four.

"That starts this week and we need to learn from the lessons against Kalamunda. I don’t think we came in complacent, I think they just shocked us with a 33-point first quarter.

"We certainly could have defended better and had a couple of lapses, but once they saw some shots fall they started to feel good. They really gave us a shake up and we learn from it, and can't go into any game like that moving forward.

"We've got to be better and if we want to win a championship, it's not going to happen playing like that."