NBL1 West Recap | Men's Friday Round 8

The son of a legend produced a shooting performance to savour on Friday night with Jerami Grace nailing 10 three-pointers in a big Round 8 NBL1 West Men's victory against the East Perth Eagles.

It was the lone game on Friday to open Round 8 of the NBL1 West season at Belmont Oasis and it was Jerami Grace who inspired the 98-70 win for the Redbacks against the Eagles.

Grace hit 10/14 from three-point territory on his way to 33 points while two of his teammates with NBL experience, Louis Timms (28 points) and Zac Gattorna (20) were impressive in the victory as well.

Justin King scored 22 points to go with 10 rebounds for East Perth.

Round 8 in the NBL1 West Men's competition continues at 7pm on Saturday evening with the Joondalup Wolves hosting the Mandurah Magic and the South West Slammers at home to the Warwick Senators.

The Geraldton Buccaneers are also at home to the Kalamunda Eastern Suns while at 7.30pm, the Cockburn Cougars will be taking on the Perth Redbacks and at 8pm, the Lakeside Lightning host the Goldfields Giants and the Rockingham Flames face the Willetton Tigers.

The round will then wrap up on Sunday from 1pm with the Perry Lakes Hawks at home to the Goldfields Giants at Bendat Basketball Centre.

NBL1 WEST – 2022 MEN'S SEASON
ROUND 8 – FRIDAY NIGHT

PERTH REDBACKS 98 defeated EAST PERTH EAGLES 70

The final scoreline might not suggest so, but it was a night of highlights and an exciting lone Friday night NBL1 West contest at Belmont Oasis between the Perth Redbacks and East Perth Eagles.

For three quarters there was precious little that separated the two teams and it wasn’t until during the third quarter when a double-figure margin first came between the Redbacks and Eagles.

By the end of the opening term, it was East Perth leading 18-16 before the first big highlight of the night came when Jerami Grace delivered an on point alley-oop pass to his Redbacks teammate Zac Gattorna who threw it down in spectacular fashion. 

East Perth was remaining narrow leaders, though, until Grace knocked down a couple of three balls. When he his fourth of the game, Perth were back level and then when he nailed one on the half-time buzzer following an offensive board from Ben Smith, Perth went into the main break leading narrowly 42-38.

With Jarrad Anastasio a strong presence defensively delivering a couple of statement blocks on Louis Timms and Justin King leading the East Perth charge offensively, they kept in touch of the Redbacks and were only down three by three quarter-time.

However, the Redbacks blew game wide open in the fourth quarter with Grace catching fire once more with another five three-point bombs to give him 10 for the game.

With Timms and Zac Gattorna finishing strongly at the rim, Tevin Jackson doing a battle of everything and the league's all-time assists leader Joel Wagner dishing out the dimes, the Redbacks produced a spectacular final quarter.

The home team put on 34 points to nine to end up winning 98-70 to improve to a 5-4 record on the season while East Perth are now 1-8.

It was a dazzling performance from Jerami Grace to ensure that potential NBL suitors don't forget about him as they put together their #NBL23 rosters.

He finished the night with 33 points, seven rebounds and four assists on the back of knocking down 10/14 from beyond the three-point arc.

Louis Timms produced a superb display as well for the Redbacks with 28 points and six rebounds on shooting a supremely efficient 13/18 from the floor.

Adelaide 36ers development player Zac Gattorna was impressive as well with 20 points, five rebounds and three assists on 8/11 shooting with Tevin Jackson contributing 10 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals.

Joel Wagner also dished out another seven assists in what as an impressive all-round Redbacks showing.

Justin King top-scored for East Perth with 22 points and 10 rebounds on 8/15 shooting.

Mateo Campbell added 16 points and five rebounds for the Eagles, Nic Filpo seven points, four rebounds and two assists, and Jarrad Anastasio six points, three rebounds and while he was only credited with one block, he produced multiple of them.