NBL1 West Recap | Men's Sunday Round 5

The Kalamunda Eastern Suns scored their first win of the 2022 NBL1 West Men's season on Sunday afternoon with Cooper Lowe showing the way in his 100th appearance against the East Perth Eagles.

Round 5 in the NBL1 West Men's competition began back on Friday night with the East Perth Eagles defeating the Perth Redbacks 90-86 and the Rockingham Flames beating the South West Slammers 87-74.

The Geraldton Buccaneers maintained their undefeated start to the season by beating the Goldfields Giants at home 85-75 on Saturday night with the Joondalup Wolves also defeating the Lakeside Lightning 86-58.

The Warwick Senators scored a stunning overtime 97-89 win against the Willetton Tigers with the Mandurah Magic beating the Cockburn Cougars 93-67, the Perry Lakes Hawks downing the Kalamunda Eastern Suns, and the Rockingham Flames overcoming the Kalamunda Eastern Suns 105-93.

That led into Sunday's clash at Ray Owen Sports Centre with the Kalamunda Eastern Suns notching their first win of the season by beating the East Perth Eagles 86-63 on their home floor.

That means that after five rounds of the 2022 NBL1 West Men's season, the Geraldton Buccaneers are the lone remaining undefeated team left with six wins from their six matches so far.

The Rockingham Flames are sitting on a 5-1 record ahead of the Warwick Senators, Joondalup Wolves and Perry Lakes Hawks all sitting at 4-1.

The Mandurah Magic and Cockburn Cougars are both 4-2 ahead of the Goldfields Giants who are 3-2 in front of the Perth Redbacks (3-3), Willetton Tigers (2-4), East Perth Eagles (1-5), Kalamunda Eastern Suns (1-6), Lakeside Lightning (0-6) and South West Slammers (0-7).

NBL1 WEST – 2022 MEN'S SEASON
ROUND 5 – SUNDAY

KALAMUNDA EASTERN SUNS 86 defeated EAST PERTH EAGLES 63

Both the Kalamunda Eastern Suns and East Perth Eagles came into Sunday's clash at Ray Owen Sports Centre making their second appearances for Round 5 in the NBL1 West Men's competition.

The Eastern Suns had played the previous night in Rockingham and fought hard before losing by 12 to the Flames while the Eagles scored a Friday night win at home against the Perth Redbacks.

That meant Kalamunda was still chasing its first win of the season under new coach Ben Ettridge coming into Sunday's game, and with Cooper Lowe celebrating his 100th appearance, they would end up getting that elusive victory they were after.

The Suns started well to hold the Eagles to 12 points in the first quarter to lead by five at quarter-time but it was a tight contest at half-time with Kalamunda only leading narrowly 34-32.

The Eastern Suns were feeling a win was within their grasp, though, and they produced a strong third quarter with 23 points to 13 to lead by 12 at three quarter-time.

They then closed out the deal with 29 points to 18 in the fourth period to claim the 86-63 victory.

Not only was Cooper Lowe celebrating his 100th game for the Eastern Suns, but the versatile power forward stood tall to deliver a standout performance for the occasion with 19 points and five rebounds on 8/11 shooting.

Albert Almanza added 18 points, eight rebounds and three assists for the Suns, Rob Huntington 16 points and six rebounds, Xavier Shaw nine points and 12 boards, Jacob Formosa seven points, and Tom Atkinson seven points and 10 boards.

Justin King put up 20 points and 10 rebound for East Perth while Mateo Campbell contributed 15 points and eight boards, Kieran Berry six points and four rebounds, and Junior Tshikele six points.