Round 11 Eagles Wrap – Women/Men

The East Perth Eagles had their best weekend of the NBL1 West season with four wins from four games with double victories for both women and men's teams at home to the Joondalup Wolves and away to the Mandurah Magic.

The weekend got underway with the most remarkable double overtime contest at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre where the Eagles women eventually prevailed 96-95 against the Joondalup Wolves.

The East Perth men backed that up at Peter Campbell Basketball Arena with the 94-90 win also over the Wolfpack on Friday night.

That led into the Saturday evening battles with the Mandurah Magic at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre with the Eagles women prevailing 91-68 and the men completing the perfect weekend for the Eagles with the 96-88 victory.

WOMEN

Momentum is now building with the East Perth Eagles women with the double overtime win at home over the Joondalup Wolves before backing up less than 24 hours later to beat the Mandurah Magic.

The Eagles came into the weekend with two wins on the season and both of those came against the Wolves and Magic in the first two meetings, and by the end of Saturday night, East Perth doubled that win tally.

Imports Mary Baskerville and Laci Hawthorne both had outstanding weekends strongly backed up by Tessa Morrison, Bri Bailey, Sarah Allen and Mary Goulding in the 96-95 double overtime win against the Wolfpack and then backing up beating the Magic 91-68 on the road.

Starting on Friday night, the two teams had met just two weeks earlier at HBF Arena and it was East Perth producing a stunning comeback to win by four points.

They had their return encounter at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre on Friday night and what eventuated was quite the dramatic evening.

East Perth did start the better to be leading by six points at quarter-time and the Eagles extended that advantage to 44-35 by half-time.

The lead for East Perth grew to as much as 12 points in the third quarter and the Eagles were still up by eight in the fourth, but the Wolves then mounted a charge to set up a finish that neither team will want to watch back to end regulation.

The Eagles were up one before a travel call on Mary Baskerville as her team was trying to extend the lead in the final minute. Sarah Toeaina was then fouled for the Wolves and made one to tie up scores.

The Wolves managed to secure possession after the second missed free-throw and called a timeout. Out of that, Toeaina missed a good look with the mid-range jumper before an East Perth turnover up the other end.

That gave Joondalup another shot with scores tied but Toeaina was called for the offensive foul. It was East Perth's turn out of a timeout to try and break the deadlock with Laci Hawthorne turning down the wide open three-point attempt and Bailey forced to jack up a rushed contested shot.

That forced the first overtime and it was basket for basket before East Perth was up three after a couple of free throws from Bailey.

Toeaina joined them with just over a minute to play too but her replacement Kyah Nichols hit the massive corner three right in front of the East Perth bench that ended up sending the game to a second overtime.

Eventually at the end of that second extra period with both teams exhausted and running out of bodies, it was Joondalup up by a point before Mary Baskerville won the battle for the loose ball under the rim and got the ball up and in.

That gave the Eagles the one-point lead before Bailey drew the charge call on her former Perth Redbacks teammate Ella Thornton-Elliott.

The Wolves did everything to foul East Perth on the subsequent possession, but no call was made and in the end they were able to force the turnover to get one more chance with eight seconds to go.

It was Hawthorne with the game saving block for East Perth as they won by a point in a remarkable contest.

By the end of the 50 minutes of remarkably dramatic basketball, Mary Baskerville played 45 of those minutes for East Perth and finished with 34 points, 20 rebounds and three assists on 12/20 shooting from the floor and 10/11 at the foul line.

Her front court import partner Laci Hawthorne also had 17 points, 14 rebounds, eight assists and two blocked shots while playing 46 of those 50 minutes on the night.

Bri Bailey also stepped up to play nearly 32 minutes to finish with 14 points and five assists on 4/10 three-point shooting with Tessa Morrison contributing 13 points, four assists, three rebounds and two steals.

Sarah Allen also had six points and four rebounds for East Perth, Mary Goulding six points, six boards and three assists, and Taylor Robers six points, two assists and two steals.

East Perth then took on a Magic team at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre and had every right to be exhausted after the previous night.

It was the Magic who made the flying start to be up 14 in the opening period before leading 26-15 still after one.

East Perth was able to work right back into the contest in the second frame, though, with 22 points to 12 and that was enough to cut the Mandurah advantage to 38-37 at half-time.

The Eagles then turned on the afterburners in the third quarter with some scintillating basketball scoring 34 points to just 13 from the Magic.

That saw the East Perth lead get out to 20 points and then the Eagles went on with the job with the lead growing to 30 in the fourth term before they scored the 23-point victory.

It was an emphatic performance to make it consecutive wins from East Perth with import pair Laci Hawthorne and Mary Baskerville outstanding combining for 44 points, 28 rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Hawthorne finished the night with 22 points, nine boards and two assists on 9/16 shooting from the field, 2/4 from three-point range and 2/3 from the foul line.

Baskerville also had 22 points, 19 rebounds, four steals and three assists on 11/19 shooting from the floor.

They had plenty of help too with Sarah Allen stepping up for 17 points, five assists and three rebounds on 5/10 three-point shooting, and Mary Goulding contributed 13 points, five assists and two rebounds.

Tessa Morrison also had eight points, five assists and two steals, Taylor Robets six points and four rebounds, and Bri Bailey three points, three boards, three assists and two steals.

 

MEN

Lukas Milner was into the line-up and the East Perth Eagles scored two impressive wins against fellow top four contending teams, the Joondalup Wolves and Mandurah Magic, in Round 11 of the NBL1 West season.

East Perth came into the weekend on a 7-6 record and with it potentially being a season-defining double-header with the Wolves and Magic both in the race for a top four position.

The Eagles had already beaten both teams this season, though, and then repeated the dose in the space of 24 hours starting with the 94-90 home win on Friday against Joondalup and then the 96-88 road victory against Mandurah on Saturday to now sit at 9-6 after 11 rounds.

On Friday night, it was the visitors started well on Peter Campbell Basketball Arena opening up an early six-point lead.

By quarter-time the scores were all level at 25-25 and it remained a tight affair throughout the second period with the Eagles managing to lead narrowly 52-49 at the main break.

Joondalup managed to open up an eight-point lead thanks to scoring nine consecutive points in the third quarter, but then the Eagles hit back and managed to grab the momentum and open up their own nine-point advantage in the fourth frame.

From there the Eagles held on for the four-point victory to improve to an 8-6 record on the season to be knocking on the door of a top four spot.

By the end of the evening, Lee Roberts finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and two assists for the Eagles up against one of his former teams which included shooting 10/11 at the free-throw line.

Point guard Taylor Young also delivered a standout performance with 18 points and four rebounds on 7/12 shooting from the floor and 4/4 at the foul line with Sunday Dech adding 16 points, six boards, five assists and two steals.

Sebit Reath also produced 13 points and four rebounds for the Eagles, Sharif Watson eight points, three boards and two assists, Nick Filpo six points and two assists, Lukas Milner six points, two rebounds and two assists, Elijah Pawson five points, and David Okwera four points, 10 boards and four assists.

Then on Saturday, while the Magic were at home at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre on a five-game winning streak and the fresher of the teams with their only game of the weekend, they were without MVP fancy Joel Murray.

East Perth was also without 156-game NBL veteran Sunday Dech and despite not having the brilliance of Murray, Mandurah came out firing going out to a 14-point lead in the first quarter and still leading 30-19 by quarter-time.

However, East Perth worked on top in the second quarter with 29 points to 20 to cut the Magic lead to 50-48 at half-time.

The Eagles were then able to take control in the second half with 23 points to 16 in the third frame and then pushing their advantage out to 15 points in the final term.

East Perth then ended up winning by eight points to improve to a 9-6 record on the season.

David Okwera produced a standout performance in the win for East Perth with 22 points and 14 rebounds on 8/16 shooting from the floor, 2/2 from three-point range and 4/5 from the free-throw line.

It was a stunningly big line-up East Perth went with in the starting five with Taylor Young joined by bigs Okwera, Sebit Reath, Lee Roberts and Lukas Milner in the absence of Sunday Dech and Jerami Grace.

Reath finished with another 22 points and 11 rebounds with 5/10 from three-point territory with Roberts contributing 16 points, seven boards, four assists and two steals on 8/15 shooting from the field.

Young delivered 13 points, nine assists and three rebounds running the team while Sharif Watson added six points, four boards and four assists, Milner four points on 2/4 shooting, and Elijah Pawson three points and four rebounds.