Eagles Recap | Rd 3 Women/Men

The East Perth Eagles women kept on winning and the men are on the board for the 2025 NBL1 West season after a pair of Easter Thursday victories against the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

The Eagles were in action on Thursday night ahead of the Easter break at Ray Owen Sports Centre and came away with a pair of wins.

The women were first up and improved to 3-0 on the season with the 87-64 victory against the Eastern Suns before the men scored a first win of the 2025 campaign with the 75-68 come from behind win against Kalamunda having scored the game's last 13 points.

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WOMEN

The Eagles women put their perfect record to start the season on the line on the road to the Eastern Suns on Thursday night and came away with the emphatic 87-64 win.

East Perth had started the season with impressive performances to the defending champion Rockingham Flames and then undefeated Mandurah Magic ahead of facing the winless Suns on Easter Thursday.

The Eagles worked their way on top in the opening quarter and never looked back scoring seven straight points on the way to a nine-point lead, and being up still 26-19 by quarter-time.

East Perth turned that into a 16-0 scoring run in the second frame to blow the game wide open with a 20-point lead which eventuated into a 53-33 advantage going into the half-time interval.

It was another 18 points to 13 from the Eagles in the third quarter with the lead ballooning to as much as 28 points and they would go on from there to score the 23-point win to improve to 3-0 to start the season under new coach Tim Symons.

The Eagles finished the game winning the rebound count by 11 and ended up going 25/34 at the foul line opposed to the 6/9 from the Suns even with going just 4/22 from the three-point line where Kalamunda also struggled at 2/14.

Sasha Goodlett is providing East Perth with a such a strong interior presence and the WNBA championship winner finished the night with 22 points, 10 rebounds and three assists on 8/13 shooting from the floor and 6/8 at the line.

Madison Torresin had her best performance of the season too with 20 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and two assists while two-time WNBL champion Abby Cubillo added 17 points, seven assists and six boards.

There were plenty more contributors too with Aleka Kabugua putting up nine points and three assists, Awatea Leach seven points and six boards, Taylor Roberts five points, four rebounds and two steals, and Akim Lual four points and five boards.

MEN

The Eagles men were staring down the barrel of a third straight loss to open the new season before scoring the last 13 points of the game to beat the Eastern Suns 75-68 on Easter Thursday.

East Perth arrived at Ray Owen Sports Centre following season opening losses at the hands of the Rockingham Flames and Mandurah Magic, and looking to beat a Kalamunda team featuring former NBL Grand Final with the Perth Wildcats, Terrico White.

Kalamunda started strongly looking to improve on their 2-2 record to open up a nine-point lead by quarter-time.

The Eagles responded with their best quarter of the season so far in the second term by scoring 22 points while holding the Suns to just 11 which saw them head into half-time leading 40-38.

Things remained tight in the third quarter with East Perth on top 59-56 by three quarter-time but then Kalamunda captain Lewis Thomas took charge early in the fourth quarter.

He was a man possessed scoring inside up one end, blocking shots up the other and pulling down important rebounds as the Suns completed a 10-0 scoring run to be up by seven once more.

The Eastern Suns looked on track to score the win when leading 68-62 still with four minutes to play, but it was all East Perth from that moment.

In the last four minutes, the Eagles forced the Suns into four turnovers including two shot clock violations while up the other end Max Rice made a couple of important jumpers, and then Chier Maker and Ioannis Dimakopoulos knocked down three-pointers.

That put East Perth in front and they ended up scoring the only 13 points in the last four minutes to go from six points down to winning by seven and to open their account for 2025.

Max Rice put up a match-winning display for the Eagles with 22 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals on 9/14 shooting from the floor and 3/6 at three-point range.

Taylor Young also had 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists, Ioannis Dimakopoulos 11 points and six rebounds, Chier Maker eight points, six boards and two blocks, and Lee Roberts six points and 10 rebounds.

Matthew Lang also finished with six points, two rebounds and two assists, Sharif Watson three points and four rebounds, Nick Filpo three points and three assists, and teenage debutant Kuron Swaka Lo Buluk, the younger brother of Illawarra Hawks NBL star Wani, two points, a rebound and a steal.