West Recap | Anzac Round Friday

Image credit: Tom Rees (@tomreesmedia)

Marshall Nelson couldn’t quite lift his Eastern Suns over Willetton Tigers on Anzac Day, while Zitina Aokuso produced an impressive triple-double and the Rockingham Flames men won big over the Cockburn Cougars.

WEST RECAP | ANZAC ROUND THURSDAY

FIELDO REACHES 350 BUT GIVING BACK TO SLAMMERS THE FOCUS

WEST RECAP | EASTER ROUND

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Willetton Tigers (94) defeated Kalamunda Eastern Suns (56)

For the second time in less than two weeks the Eastern Suns had no answers for Zitina Aokuso as she continued her sparkling start to life in the NBL1 West with a huge triple-double as the Willetton Tigers won 94-56.

The Tigers did lose their opening game of the season to Mandurah, but that was without Aokuso and they had sored two strong wins over the Eastern Suns and Rockingham with her in the line-up.

They were back home at Willetton Basketball Stadium for what has become an annual Anzac Day fixture against the Eastern Suns with Kalamunda attempting to find a first win of the season.

The Suns did manage to grab an early lead, but it only lasted 27 seconds before the Tigers worked their way on top and by quarter-time were already leading 25-15.

Willetton took further control of the contest in the second quarter by going on a 12-0 scoring run and ending up leading by as much as 28 points, and outscoring the Suns 33-15 to be on top 58-30 by the half-time break.

It was another 24 points to six in the third quarter from the Tigers with the lead growing to 46 points, and then 48 in the fourth on the way to the eventual 38-point victory.

Willetton improves to 3-1 on the season to remain unbeaten with Zitina Aokuso in the line-up and she put up a triple-double consisting of 20 points, 13 assists and 12 rebounds while shooting 9/13 from the floor.

She had plenty of support too with Ajulu Thatha delivering 19 points, eight rebounds, four assists and four steals, Eva Langton 10 points, six boards and two assists, and 248-game captain Desiree Kelley nine points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Kalamunda is still winless this season at 0-5 and having lost seven straight dating back to the end of 2024 with Olivia Berry top-scoring with 24 points on 8/21 shooting with 6/7 at the foul line.

Karly Murphy ended up with 11 points and 11 rebounds while Roxy Dagostino contributed eight points, four boards and two steals.

WILLETTON TIGERS 94 (Aokuso 20, Thatha 19, Langton 10)

KALAMUNDA EASTERN SUNS 56 (Berry 24, Murphy 11, Dagostino 8)

MEN

Willetton Tigers (86) defeated Kalamunda Eastern Suns (79)

The Kalamunda Eastern Suns almost pulled off a miraculous come back from 27 points down but it wasn’t quite to be with the Willetton Tigers holding them out for the 86-79 Anzac Day victory.

It has now become a traditional Anzac Day match up between the Tigers and Eastern Suns, but the 2025 version turned out to be a thriller with things having come along way from the days of a record 81-point win for Willetton over Kalamunda back in 2016 in the last game with Alan Black as coach.

Coming off playing in last year's Grand Final, Willetton started the season strongly with wins over Mandurah and Kalamunda, but had a slip up on Easter Thursday to Rockingham and were looking to hit back on Anzac Day at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

The Suns were looking to avoid a third consecutive loss and did welcome back Marshall Nelson who played on that Willetton team that made the Grand Final in 2024.

The Tigers made a flying start to open up a 14-point lead in the first quarter and that continued to grow when they produced a 13-0 run on the way to a 27-point advantage in the second frame.

Willetton were still leading 51-30 by half-time and were in complete control, and that was still the case by three quarter-time with the home team still up by 17.

However, the Eastern Suns were threatening to work back into the contest and that happened in the final quarter when former Tigers pair Travis Fee and Marshall Nelson knocked down three-pointers to bring the deficit back to single figures.

Kalamunda got all the way back within six with just under three minutes to play after a bucket to 326-game veteran Reece Maxwell but Willetton answered with three shots at the foul line when Suns youngster Marley Sam fouled Tyreese Davis.

Willetton then forced the turnover on Nelson leading to a Damien Scott layup and from there the Tigers were able to secure the seven-point victory.

It was a strangely off free-throw shooting afternoon from both teams with Willetton going at 14/28 at a team and the Suns 13/26 with Terrico White the worst culprit for Kalamunda with 2/8 including an air ball while Roosevelt Williams Jr struggled with 4/11 for Willetton.

Damien Scott finished with 18 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and two steals with Williams adding 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals despite his foul line struggles.

Tyreese Davis contributed 13 points, three assists and two rebounds, Tom Gerovich eight points, seven boards and three assists, and 293-game captain Andrew Black eight points with 2/3 three-point shooting.

Marshall Nelson finished with 17 points, seven rebound and three assists in his first game against Willetton since leading them to last year's Grand Final while fellow former Tiger Travis Fee had 13 points, seven boards and three assists.

Terrico White also had 16 points, five rebounds and two assists, Reece Maxwell 11 points and four boards on 5/5 shooting, and Lewis Thomas eight points and five rebounds.

WILLETTON TIGERS 86 (Scott 18, Williams Jr 18, Davis 13)

KALAMUNDA EASTERN SUNS 79 (Nelson 17, White 16, Fee 13)

Cockburn Cougars (71) lost to Rockingham Flames (104)

The Cockburn Cougars welcomed a new import but were without perhaps their most important player and were no match for the high powered Rockingham Flames who scored the 104-71 Anzac Day road victory.

The Flames arrived at Wally Hagan Stadium fresh off a stirring comeback win over the Willetton Tigers on Easter Thursday and having won three of four games this season while also having new imports Jervon Pressley and Laquinton Ross settling in.

The Cougars had lost a startling amount of experience coming into the season and had struggled across their first four matches, but did welcome new import Terrandus Smith for the clash with the Flames.

However, Cockburn was without Josh Hunt who has been averaging 17.3 points, 3.5 assists and 2.8 rebounds so far this season, and it wasn't ideal timing for the Cougars as they tried to be competitive with Rockingham.

To the credit of Cockburn they did start encouragingly with an early 8-0 run and leading by as much as five points, but Rockingham worked its way on top with a 13-0 streak of their own.

That helped the Flames go into quarter-time leading 26-22 and then they pulled away further with 25 points to 12 in the second frame to be in charge 51-34 at the half-time interval.

Rockingham really dominated further to start the second half to end up leading by 35 points and then by 37 in the fourth before both teams emptied their benches for a lot of the final period.

The Flames cruised to the 33-point victory to improve to 4-1 on the season with Isaac White claiming the Anzac Medal for his 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists with 4/8 long range shooting in just 23:31 of court time.

Jervon Pressley added 12 points and 10 rebounds, Ryan Godfrey 11 points and three assists, Justin Beard 11 points, two rebounds and two blocks, Laquinton Ross 10 points and nine boards, and Tevin Jackson 10 points, four assists, two rebounds and two steals.

The Cougars are now 0-5 to start the season with those losses coming at an average of 23.6 points but there were encouraging signs from new import Terrandus Smith who had 12 points, three rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes.

Import point guard Kortland Martin struggled for just seven points and three assists on 3/15 shooting, though, with Chan Nai adding 11 points, eight rebounds and four steals, and Riley Eves 11 points, four boards, three assists and two steals.

COCKBURN COUGARS 71 (Smith 12, Chai 11, Eves 11)

ROCKINGHAM FLAMES 104 (White 25, Pressley 12, Godfrey 11, J Beard 11)