Eagles deliver on promise in home opener

Image credit: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

Jasmin Fejo and Sydney Wright put on a show in their first East Perth Eagles home games, Stacey Barr nearly had a triple-double and what pleased coach Jonelle Morley even more was the others who stepped up and the defensive buy in.

Coming off a season-opening road win against the Willetton Tigers, the Eagles took to Peter Campbell Basketball Arena at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre on Saturday night, and put on quite the show on their home floor.

The end result was the 111-80 victory with the Eagles outscoring the Mandurah Magic 45 points to 25 over the last 17 minutes to offer a glimpse into what they are capable of in 2026 with Sarah Mortensen still to come in.

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While Fejo, Wright and Barr all played starring roles, a whole host of other Eagles players had a significant impact in the win and there was plenty for coach Morley to be pleased about.

"It was great and we had a really good atmosphere, we put on a bit of a show and I think the girls came out ready to play," Morley said.

"They were pretty excited about the first home game and we'd put in the work. It was still a pretty tough game most of the way through and we blew it out a little bit in the third and the fourth, but it was a really solid game."

Fejo and Wright are two players not only new to the Eagles this season, but also to the NBL1 West in general having made the move from NBL1 Central, and they've wasted no time finding their feet.

As the starting back court they are doing both a tremendous job running the team and providing a lethal scoring and shooting threat which was fully on display against the Magic.

Fejo finished with 24 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals on 6/8 three-point shooting with Wright delivering 24 points and four assists with 3/4 shooting from downtown and 9/10 at the foul line.

"It's been great having Sydney and Jasmin coming into the group and I think it's been really fortunate to have them here for a lot of the pre-season as well," Morley said.

"They're both two players who are in the gym every day, they put in the extra work, they put up the shots and we saw that come to fruition here in our first home game.

"They've put up the extra shots during pre-season and the ball went through the hole for them.

"I was really impressed with the way Sydney controlled the pace of the game for us, she showed what she can do as a point guard not only as a scorer and controlling the pace of the game, but also putting the pressure on the ball.

"There's not a lot of players who can do all of those aspects of the game and she was able to put all of that together for us.

"Then obviously Jas got hot as well from three-point land and we know she's got the ability to do that. We've just got to get her the ball in the right spots."

Then alongside that pair, Barr delivered 21 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and three steals but the strong contributors didn't stop there.

Jade Williams is finding her feet and had eight points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks in 27 minutes while Brooke Malone had 15 points and five boards, and Jo Odude six points, five rebounds and three assists.

Zaya Black had another five points, two rebounds and two assists with Ari van Vliet infectious in her energy in her nine minutes while Aleka Kabugua came in and caught the eye of the coach too in her six minutes.

"I was really impressed with Aleka in this game as well with her energy off the bench and we have a lot of different players who can come in and play different roles," Morley said.

"We had different players in this game who came in and impacted the game than we did in the last one, and that's really exciting that there's different players that can come in.

"Stacey was one assist of a triple-double too and her shots weren’t falling from three-point land, but she was able to impact the game in other ways. We have lots of girls that can come out and impact the game which is really exciting."

As exciting as the Eagles are showing they can be at the offensive end, Morley wants them to be just as effective defensively and the longer the game went against Mandurah, the more they were rewarded for their efforts at that end of the court too.

"I think we're a pretty active defensive team and we can't have just one or two players being active, and the rest just sitting and watching," Morley said.

"We've had to talk about every single athlete buying in and being active, and I think we had some real structure around how we were going to play Mia and Claire (Jacobs) because we knew they were going to try to take the game on.

"And let's face it, they were still really good players in that game, but we just knew we had to build that pressure and hone in on our defensive structures in this game, and I must admit I was really pleased with the execution of the game plan and how we stuck with it.

"I said to the girls that if we execute this early in the game then it will come to fruition later in the game, and we were really lucky that it did."