Eagles Recap | Rd 4 Women/Men

Image credit: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

The East Perth Eagles women continued their perfect start to the NBL1 West season beating the Joondalup Wolves at home on Saturday night while the men went so close to consecutive wins before an overtime loss.

The Eagles were back home at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre on Saturday evening and the Anzac Round contests started on Peter Campbell Basketball Arena with Abby Cubillo and Sasha Goodlett starring in the 88-80 women's victory against the Wolves.

The East Perth men looked on track to beat the Wolves too but ultimately in overtime the visitors prevailed 108-98.

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WOMEN

The impressive start to the season of the Eagles women continued at home on Saturday evening with Abby Cubillo and Sasha Goodlett dominating in the 88-80 win against the Joondalup Wolves.

The Eagles were fresh off starting the season with a first up win at home against the defending champion Rockingham Flames ahead of beating the Mandurah Magic and Eastern Suns on the road ahead of a return to Peter Campbell Basketball Arena to play the Wolves.

It might have been a Joondalup team yet to win this season, but also a team featuring new import Maddie Sutton along with quality players Ella Thornton-Elliott, Stefane Berberabe, Jhazmin Joson and Jorjah Smith.

It was always going to be a challenge once again for the Eagles but the home team started strongly to be leading 16-7 when Madison Torresin drained a three-pointer in the first quarter.

That was a lone three for East Perth in the opening term while Joondalup knocked down five of them with the Wolfpack managing to lead 19-18 by quarter-time before moving out to a nine-point advantage in the second term.

It was East Perth's turn to respond and the home team managed to narrowly work on top to be just in front at 41-40 by the half-time break.

The momentum changes continued with the Wolves opening up a six-point lead in the third quarter but then the Eagles worked their own way back on top with nine consecutive points to end up leading by seven on the back of going 7/11 inside while again missing all four three-point attempts.

That East Perth lead grew to 12 in the fourth quarter and they were able to complete the job to win by eight and improve to a perfect 4-0 record on the season with the four three-point makes helping them close the deal.

The aggressive and physical style of the Eagles paid off with them going 23/31 at the foul line opposed to 6/9 from the Wolves along with winning the rebound count 44-37, and forcing the Wolfpack into 17 turnovers from which they were able to score 19 points.

The combination of point guard Abby Cubillo and centre Sasha Goodlett for the Eagles to be built around is proving to be a masterstroke and both of them came up huge in the win.

Cubillo finished with 24 points, seven rebounds and six assists with Goodlett adding 22 points, 10 boards and three assists on 10/14 shooting.

They had plenty of help too with Awatea Leach finishing with 15 points, seven rebounds and four steals, Madison Torresin 12 points, three assists and two steals, and captain Tessa Morrison nine points, seven rebounds, four steals and three assists.

Aleka Kabugua contributed another three points and two assists in the win, and Taylor Roberts three points and five rebounds.

MEN

The Eagles men did plenty to right to put themselves in a winning position for a second straight victory at home on Saturday night but it wasn’t quite to be with the Joondalup Wolves winning 108-98 in overtime.

East Perth were fresh off the first win of the season back on Easter Thursday after scoring the last 13 points of the game to beat the Eastern Suns ahead of hosting the Wolfpack at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre on Saturday night.

It was always going to be a significant challenge with the Wolves having finished second last year on the back of playing in the grand final of 2023, and with a team featuring CJ Turnage, Ethan Elliott, Caleb Davis and new import Joey Baker.

Both teams were playing their first games since Easter Thursday with the Eagles looking to build on their first win of the season while the Wolfpack were attempting to bounce back from a loss to the Warwick Senators.

It was quite the up tempo first quarter as they combined to put up 60 points with East Perth leading 31-29 by quarter-time. Both teams were shooting on fire too with the Eagles making 5/8 from deep in the opening 10 minutes and the Wolves 4/6.

No more than four points was then between them in the second period which ultimately saw the Wolves narrowly on top 53-51 heading into the half-time break.

The shooting dried up and both teams combined for 4/19 from long-range but the Eagles went cold inside going 7/23 overall for the quarter.

East Perth managed to put together an 11-0 run in the third quarter to reclaim the lead and they were in front by five points early in the fourth when Nick Filpo scored.

A Caleb Davis three-pointer saw Joondalup back in front a couple of minutes later but buckets in response for the Eagles from Max Rice and Lee Roberts saw the home team return to the lead.

Davis made another triple for the Wolves to level scores back up but over the next three possessions the Eagles got to the foul line to open up a three-point lead while having missed all eight three-point attempts for the quarter.

The Wolves had the last possession and Joey Baker was fouled attempting the three-pointer and was sent to the line where the Wolves import made all three and the game went to overtime.

It was in the extra period where the Wolves took over and scored 18 points to eight to end up winning by that 10-point margin.

East Perth is now 1-3 following the loss with the Eagles having to get creative without captain and point guard Taylor Young with a lot of the playmaking duties falling to Matthew Lang who had 15 points, 10 rebounds and two assists with 4/9 three-point shooting.

Fellow new import Max Rice had a tough shooting night going 1/6 from deep while Chier Maker delivered 25 points, six rebounds, two assists and two blocks, Lee Roberts 23 points and nine boards, and Sharif Watson 10 points and six rebounds.

Nick Filpo also contributed nine points, six assists and four boards, and Ioannis Dimakopoulos five points, a rebound, an assist and a block.