Eagles Recap | Rd 1 Women/Men

It was a mixed night to open the NBL1 West season for the East Perth Eagles at home with a mighty impressive win for the new-look women's team while the men couldn’t quite back it up against the Rockingham Flames.

The 2025 NBL1 West season got underway on Friday night on Peter Campbell Basketball Arena at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre against the Rockingham Flames.

That got underway with the Eagles women beating the Flames 87-70 before Rockingham made it 18 consecutive wins over the East Perth men with the 115-94 triumph.

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WOMEN

There was great excitement around the East Perth Eagles women under new coach Tim Symons coming into 2025 and they more than delivered in the season-opener beating the Rockingham Flames 87-70.

Not only do East Perth have a new coach this season, but there are plenty of new faces too including former WNBA champion Sasha Goodlett, two-time WNBL champion Abby Cubillo and fellow new arrivals Madison Torresin, Awatea Leach, Akim Tual and Tiahna Sears, who didn't play on Friday.

However, it was a significant test first up for the Eagles against a Rockingham team fresh off winning last year's NBL1 West championship and having key players Alex Sharp, Alex Ciabattoni, Jess Jakens and Shani Amos all out there on Friday night to open the new season.

The Eagles locked in defensively from the start to hold the Flames to 11 points in the first quarter and then they got rolling at the offensive end by piling on 34 points in the second frame.

That saw East Perth in control of the contest leading 52-37 at the half-time break before that lead continued to grow and that got out to as much as 22 points in the third quarter.

The Eagles completed the job for the eventual 17-point victory in what was a statement and impressive way to open the new season against the defending champions.

East Perth finished the game attempting 10 extra shots than Rockingham while shooting 42 per cent from the field opposed to 32 while forcing the Flames into 18 turnovers along with pulling down 15 offensive rebounds for the night.

Sasha Goodlett has joined East Perth this season having already put together a standout career since coming out of Georgia Tech and then going on to win a WNBA championship with the Indiana Fever in 2012.

Since then she has gone on to play a couple more WNBA seasons along with having stints in France, China, Korea, Portugal, Turkey, Mexico and Israel, and now in her first visit down under, she showed on Friday night what a powerful presence she will be.

Goodlett finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds and two steals on 10/20 shooting from the floor in her 28 minutes of court time.

Abby Cubillo is another significant signing for the Eagles with the dynamic and tenacious point guard impressive first up with 13 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals while shooting 5/10 and knocking down both her three-point attempts.

Awatea Leach was also first-class performance with 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists while returning import Madison Torresin put up nine points and five rebounds.

Taylor Roberts also had nine points, seven rebounds and three assists, captain Tessa Morrison nine points, five boards, three assists and three steals, Akim Lual seven points and two rebounds, and Aleka Kabugua two points and a board.

MEN

The East Perth Eagles had their sights set on revenge and ending a decade-long losing streak to Rockingham on Friday and while there were encouraging signs including five threes from new import Max Rice, the Flames prevailed 115-94.

The Eagles broke through for a first finals appearance since the championship triumph of 2014 last year but it was the Flames who brought that to an end in the first round of the finals also at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.

It has also been since 2014 that East Perth last beat Rockingham so the Eagles were looking to put that to an end to open the new season with new arrivals Matthew Lang, Max Rice, Chier Maker, Ioannis Dimakopoulos and the returning Fabian Johnson on deck.

With Nic Filpo, Taylor Young, Lee Roberts and Sharif Watson among the returnees too, there was great excitement around the Eagles in 2025 and there still is even with the first up loss against a loaded up Rockingham team.

The Flames have also added NBL duo Emmett Naar and Isaac White who played together with the Brisbane Bullets this past season along with Tevin Jackson.

The Flames turned up the heat from the outset with 33 points to 22 in the first quarter before another 28 to 23 in the second frame to head into half-time leading 61-45.

East Perth struggled to keep pace with a Rockingham team who put up another 31 points in the third quarter to end up leading by as much as 31 points before winning by 21 to make it 18 in-a-row against the Eagles.

It wasn’t the opening to the season the Eagles were hoping for with new import Max Rice top-scoring with 19 points, four rebounds and four assists with 5/10 shooting from downtown.

Taylor Young added 18 points, six steals, four assists and three rebounds, Chier Maker 16 points and six boards, Nic Filpo 13 points and five rebounds, Sharif Watson 13 points and seven boards, and Matthew Lang 11 points, five rebounds and four assists.