Eagles Rd 8 Preview | Home v Slammers

Image credit: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

The East Perth Eagles are home at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre once more this Friday night to play host to the South West Slammers in Round 8 of the NBL1 West season.

The Eagles are backing up also being at home on Peter Campbell Basketball Arena last Saturday where the women continued their strong start beating the Mandurah Magic before the men lost a heartstopper to the defending champions.

Now this Friday night East Perth is at home to the Slammers with the women's match up beginning at 6:30pm and the men to follow with tip-off at 8:30pm.

CUBILLO EMBRACING NEW CHALLENGE OUT WEST WITH EAGLES

EAGLES RECAP | RD 7 WOMEN/MEN

WOMEN

The East Perth Eagles might come into Friday night's game at home in terrific form but they can't afford to take anything for granted against an improving South West Slammers already with two wins themselves in 2025.

The Eagles came back after the bye and a loss to the Warwick Senators last Saturday to deliver a tremendous all-round performance to beat the Mandurah Magic 103-96 in a high scoring affair also at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.

That win improved East Perth to a 5-1 record for the season as they prepare to host a Slammers team who might have been on a 52-game losing run entering 2025, but who have now won two of their nine matches so far.

Those two wins have been against the winless Kalamunda Eastern Suns, but the Slammers have also produced strong performances in narrow defeats twice to the Lakeside Lightning along with against the Joondalup Wolves and Rockingham Flames.

That all means that the Eagles are going to have to be right on their game to continue their winning ways on Friday night in their lone game of the weekend ahead of a Round 9 double-header against the Perth Redbacks and Goldfields Giants.

There's a lot to like with the way both teams are playing coming into the Friday night match up including Eagles centre Sasha Goodlett coming off a Player of the Week performance with 42 points and 14 rebounds against Mandurah.

Madison Torresin also contributed 26 points and eight rebounds, Awatea Leach 13 points and six assists, Abby Cubillo 13 points and 10 assists, and Taylor Roberts six points, four assists and three rebounds.

The Slammers also arrive at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre fresh off beating the Eastern Suns on the road last Saturday just 24 hours after a three-point home defeat to the Flames.

The Slammers are getting strong performances out of import pair Mykea Gray and Cayla King along with 354-game veteran Kate Fielding, and emerging brigade Javene Fitch, Addison Edwards, Bree Chalk and Alexis Donovan.

Star Eagles point guard Cubillo certainly won't be letting her team taking anything for granted against the Slammers.

"The game against the Slammers is definitely not one we are taking lightly. We know they are going to come out and battle, and we need to do the same," Cubillo said.

"Generally we like to focus a lot on our team, and I think week by week we have been making improvements that will be crucial at the end of the season."

MEN

The East Perth Eagles lost at the buzzer last Saturday night and now will look to take a step back towards a .500 record by the end of next week when hosting the South West Slammers on Friday night.

East Perth produced their best performance of the season two weeks ago when beating the Geraldton Buccaneers on the road and then went ever so close to backing it up at home to the defending champion Mandurah Magic last Saturday.

However, a couple of good looks just before the buzzer didn’t fall for the Eagles with the Magic ending up holding on for the eventual 88-86 victory.

That result left the Eagles sitting with a 2-5 record coming into Friday night's match at home to a Slammers team that might not have won a game yet in 2025, but haven't been too far away at the same time.

The margins might have blown out in South West's two games last weekend for combined 58-point defeats at the hands of the Rockingham Flames and Kalamunda Eastern Suns, but they were competition for large periods.

Then prior to that they were unlucky to not complete the job in a three-point loss to the Joondalup Wolves having also previously gone close against the Lakeside Lightning and Perry Lakes Hawks.

That means that the Eagles are still going to have to be on song to get the win with the Slammers possession an import centre Jamal Poplar who is averaging 24.9 points and 10.8 rebounds while fellow import Calvin Whipple is a dangerous shooter and Devan Craig is producing a career-best 15.2 points.

Eagles coach Carl Filpo will be doing all he can to make sure his team is as switched on as they would be for any other opponent fully aware that it is very much the type of game that could make or break a season depending on the way the result goes.

"It's a challenge for sure to make sure the guys stay focused no matter who we're playing because you don't really know what's in their heads," Filpo said.

"If they are thinking it might be an easy game, then they are already in trouble and so are we as a team.

"It's not lost on me that Bunbury is a good team and are due for a win because they've got some good players, and you could say that about them last year too but we went to overtime against them.

"We take every team seriously and I'd like to think that my players do too, and I'm confident that they do," he added.

"We'll treat it like any other game where we go in with our scout, we try to execute the plan and we need to be just as locked in for this one as any other because the pressure's on us to get the win.

"As far as preparation goes it's exactly the same as any other week, and this gives us a chance to go into our first double-header next week to get back to .500 which is our goal."