Eagles Preview – Round 5

The East Perth Eagles hit the road again in NBL1 West Round 5 with the women attempting a drought breaking win and the men looking to keep the momentum rolling against the Willetton Tigers.

It's just the single game weekend again in Round 5 for East Perth to continue the NBL1 West season with the Saturday evening match ups against the Tigers at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

The women's contest opens proceedings with tip-off at 5pm with the men's match up to follow at 7pm.

WOMEN

The East Perth Eagles' quest for that elusive drought breaking win sees them take on a Willetton Tigers team who is a perennial powerhouse in the NBL1 West competition.

While the Eagles have lost their first five games of the 2024 season, they have been agonisingly close to that breakthrough win including a tight loss at home to Perry Lakes last Saturday.

East Perth will now take on Willetton on Saturday evening trying to snap a 13-game losing streak dating back to last year but it's never easy against the Tigers especially on their home floor.

Willetton has played in the last three women's Grand Finals including winning a championship in 2021 with the Tigers also fresh off a thumping win against the Kalamunda Eastern Suns on Anzac Day where import Melisa Brcaninovic put up 39 points.

There's also added intrigue with Eagles coach Craig Allen coming up against the team he has spent most of his basketball life at while also having spent a number of years as championship winning assistant coach to Simon Parker at Willetton.

While East Perth is yet to win a game this season, there is plenty to be encouraged about including last week where Mary Goulding continued her inspirational return with 25 points and 16 rebounds.

Tessa Morrison also had 12 points, four rebounds and three assists, Laci Hawthorne 12 points and 20 rebounds, Bri Bailey 10 points and four boards, and Mary Baskerville 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Now it's just a matter of pulling it altogether for four quarters and that first win since May 26 last year could be on the horizon.

That's certainly the hope for Goulding who while she is just happy to be back playing after her life threatening accident only 11 months ago, winning basketball is always more fun and she doesn't feel it's far away for East Perth.

"I'm excited for this weekend. Of course it's so much more fun if you're winning. I mean as thankful as I am to just be back playing, it would add to it times five if we could get the win too," Goulding said.

"Everything is so much better when you're winning so without a doubt that's what we want and what we need. At the same time, we're improving as a team and are fine tuning things, and we've already made steps in the right direction.

"So it's all about trusting that process and I have no doubt that the win is going to come soon. Whether it's this weekend or not I don’t know, but i hope it is and I'm rooting for this weekend being the one for us.

"The team is still gelling and putting a full game together because I totally think we can do it with the team that we have. We definitely have the talent and we've been a bit unlucky so far where we've been in positions to steal those games, now we have to cross that line and getting it done.

"I'm really excited now for this weekend and the chance that it presents for us, and hopefully that fed up feeling of losing gets us over the line."

MEN

Momentum is building at the East Perth Eagles and now they face the test of taking on perhaps the hottest team in the men's competition on Saturday night at Willetton.

The Eagles returned to the winner's list with a strong showing at Peter Campbell Basketball Arena last Saturday night to beat the Perry Lakes Hawks by 27 points.

That offered a glimpse into how impressive and potent this East Perth team can be even still while not being at full strength without Jerami Grace, and awaiting the arrival of Lee Roberts and Lukas Milner.

Now it's a significant test on Saturday night by taking on a Tigers team who are on a four-game winning streak and coming into the contest with a 5-1 record and fresh off a thumping Anzac Day victory on the road to the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

It's an impressive Willetton line-up that East Perth will come up against with the experience of Damien Scott, Michael Vigor, Marshall Nelson and Andrew Black, the youth of Josh Ibukunoluwa, Roosevelt Williams and Tom Musumeci, and then import Michael Dupree along with Deng Gak.

It's a well-rounded Tigers line-up who are playing strong basketball but the Eagles are building nicely in 2024 and will be up for the challenge.

Sebit Reath, Taylor Young and Sunday Dech all scored 18 points in last week's 96-67 win at home over Perry Lakes with Nic Filpo, Sharif Watson, Michael Clare and David Okwera making strong contributions as well.

That sets the stage for Saturday night's match up with East Perth attempting to improve on a 2-3 start to the season.

Reath has started the season strongly with the Eagles too currently putting up 15.4 points and 7.6 rebounds a game in his second season at East Perth.

He's not sure if he'll be out there or not on Saturday night because of a finger complaint, but either way he's looking forward to seeing how the Eagles perform up against the Tigers.

"It's frustrating because I really wanted to play this week and I might still be able to give it a go, I'll have to see how I feel on Saturday," Reath said.

"I feel like one of the worst things is having to sit there and watch and not be able to play, it's like torture, so hopefully I can get out there.

"It's a very exciting challenge for us but at the moment I'm kinda dealing with a finger issue that I did last week with the Perry Lakes game.

"So I'm not really sure if I'm going to be able to go out and play on Saturday, but I'll definitely be there to support the lads and I feel like we've done all the scouting and have put ourselves in a position to be able to make it a good game and get the win. Hopefully we go and do that."