Dominant Baskerville leads Eagles to first win

The East Perth Eagles broke through for a first win of the NBL1 West season in style on Saturday night and new import forward Mary Baskerville couldn’t have been more dominant as she settles in down under.

The 24-year-old grew up in Connecticut before embarking on a five-year college career with the first four of those at Providence College before a year with Quinnipiac University and now coming to the Eagles to play in the NBL1 West competition is her first stop overseas, and playing professionally since.

In many ways, she couldn’t have come further away from home to start her life as a professional basketball player, but she's wasted no time settling in to the style of play, the lifestyle and being part of the basketball program with the Eagles.

Baskerville's form was building gradually as she settled into playing the new style of basketball in a foreign country and then on Saturday night at Peter Campbell Basketball Arena, it all came together as she delivered one of the more remarkable individual performances.

With the Eagles desperate for a first win in almost 12 months, Baskerville ensured that happened even if it came in overtime against the Mandurah Magic.

She finished the evening with 34 points, 20 rebounds and five assists on the back of shooting 13/15 from the field while playing nearly 36 minutes, and afterwards, she was as relieved as anybody to get her first win playing overseas and since her college career.

"It felt really good to finally get a win after so many losses. Morale wise, we really needed that," Baskerville said.

"Getting this one I hope gets us rolling on the right track. Now that we see how we are able to play it boosts the team's confidence, we just need to bring that every game."

Coming out of five years of playing college basketball, it's been a steep learning curve both in terms of basketball and just getting used to living in a new country for Baskerville, but she couldn’t be happier with the situation she's found herself in.

"I’m loving playing in Australia so far. It’s been an adjustment but definitely starting to get a feel for the style of play out here," she said.

"Enjoying every moment here. It has been a really good experience, the weather and the beaches have been the best part. I could see myself staying here for a while."

Baskerville wasn’t quite sure where life and basketball would take her once she graduated from college and when a chance came up to come to Australia, the things that immediately came to mind that everywhere she looked she'd see terrifying bugs and animals.

That's all she was really expecting once she got off the plane, but the reality has been the complete opposite and she couldn’t be enjoying the lifestyle in Perth that she is getting to experience more.

"No I actually didn’t know anything about Perth before considering playing out here. The only things I really knew about Australia were the stereotypical things like the bugs and animals," Baskerville said.

"But since being here that has not been an issue, especially the bugs because I don’t do well with bugs. Perth has exceeded my expectations there’s so much still for me to do and I can’t wait."

While the lifestyle didn’t take Baskerville much time to get accustomed to and in terms of culture differences, adjusting to Australia is much easier than if she was trying to play in Europe to start her professional journey.

But the basketball did take a little while longer to get used to especially just the way the games are officiated.

While the playing style might be similar to what she was playing in college, the way games are called is a lot different, but she feels she's now got a good handle on that and is enjoying playing more out there as a result.

"The style of play out here is pretty similar to what I’m used to, fast pace running up and down the floor which I like. My biggest battle will be getting used to the referee style," she said.

"I think I’ve been playing fairly decent. I’m really hard on myself sometimes so I think I can always do better, but once I get in a groove and string a few good games together I will be playing better than what I’ve shown so far."

The other challenge for Baskerville and her Eagles team up until last Saturday night was having to deal with a frustrating losing streak that dated back to May 26 last year.

The frustration stemmed from the fact that they knew they were capable of winning games of basketball in the league and that the talent was there to succeed, it just needed to be locked.

Baskerville looked at her teammates and with fellow import Laci Hawthorne up front, the inspirational Mary Goulding's terrific comeback, and the talent and experience with Tessa Morrison, Bri Bailey, Sarah Allen and Taylor Roberts, and she knew what they were capable of.

Nobody enjoys losing, but with the way they won in overtime on Saturday night on their home floor, Baskerville is hoping it can kickstart a winning run after this week's bye with the next challenge coming up against the defending champion Cockburn Cougars.

"Yeah it’s definitely been a struggle being on a losing streak but I feel like as long as we stick together as a team and keep riding it out our hard work will pay off," Baskerville said.

"For sure, once we get one win it will get the ball rolling and we’ll be able to see what we are capable of.

"Definitely, we have so many talented players on the team that will help us have a winning season. We just need to continue to work at getting used to one another and how we play. As we continue to mesh as a team we will only be getting better."