Eagles Rd 11 Preview | Home v Suns, Away v Flames

Featured image: Deacon Matthews | @deacs.jpg

The East Perth Eagles women will firstly try to stay unbeaten at home on Friday night before then facing a tantalising road clash with the men facing two huge challenges against top five teams, the Eastern Suns at home and Rockingham Flames on the road.

It's Round 11 of the NBL1 West season with East Perth starting at home on Friday night at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre against the Kalamunda Eastern Suns with the women's match beginning at 6:30pm followed by the men at 8:30pm

That leads into East Perth taking on the Rockingham Flames on Saturday at Mike Barnett Sports Complex with the women getting underway at 6pm and the men to follow at 8pm.

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WOMEN

The Eagles will look for a sixth straight home victory to open their double-header against the Kalamunda Eastern Suns before taking on a Rockingham Flames team on the road currently as the only team above them in the standings.

East Perth made it five straight wins at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre this season by beating the Perth Redbacks by 13 points last Friday night setting up this weekend's double.

It gets underway on Friday night when the Eagles host the Eastern Suns at Peter Campbell Basketball Arena with East Perth entering the weekend with a chance to move into top spot with two wins.

The Eagles currently sit on a 9-2 record while the Suns are 3-8 with the two teams having already played one another at Ray Owen Sports Centre with East Perth claiming the 85-66 victory.

Then following that game on Friday night, East Perth will taking on Rockingham for the first time this season with the Flames coming into the weekend occupying first place with a 10-2 record.

Rockingham have won seven straight with new import Sara Puckett starring as is two-time MVP Teige Morrell while Stef Berberabe and Lesila Finau continue to play key roles even without Amy Atwell who is with the Australian Gangurrus at the 3x3 World Cup.

It's mixed news on the personnel front coming into the weekend for the Eagles with Sarah Mortensen returning to the line-up after a quick trip home to Denmark last week that caused her to miss the win over the Redbacks.

But new arrival McKenna Dale along with Jo Odude and Jaymie Symons will remain unavailable for the weekend's double.

Eagles forward Brooke Malone is one of a host of key additions to East Perth making a big impact this season and she's looking forward to the challenging double this weekend.

While the focus is on hosting the Suns on Friday night and trying to stay undefeated at home, it's only natural to have one eye on heading down to Rockingham less than 24 hours later.

"It's still a tough match up (against the Suns) and when we played there they gave it to us and it kept them in the game, and we can't underestimate anyone," Malone said.

"They're going to come in here with a different game plan and we have to attack that, and still get a win out of that.

"Then when it gets to Saturday, that's a tough team and we want to test ourselves against the best and if we can learn from what we've done previously in other games, then hopefully we can take that into that one and come away with it."

MEN

The Eagles did get back on the winner's list last Friday night and now face two significant challenges in the space of 24 hours firstly hosting the fifth placed Eastern Suns ahead of trying to avoid a 20th straight defeat against the Rockingham Flames.

East Perth did snap their four-game losing streak at home last Friday night and even though they needed overtime, they will try to take confidence out of that ahead of this tough double.

It starts on Friday night against a Kalamunda team currently sitting in fifth position with an 8-3 record and fresh off coming from behind to beat the Perry Lakes Hawks last week.

The two teams have already played one another this season with East Perth scoring the 104-79 win over the Suns at Ray Owen Sports Centre back on May 9.

On that night, David Okwera was on fire with 28 points, eight rebounds and six assists with Lat Mayen adding 16 points, nine boards and five assists, and Jermaine Malie 11 points on his old home floor.

Jonah Antonio and Max Rice both had strong showings in that win, but neither will be there for different reasons this weekend.

That leads into Saturday night with the Eagles taking on the top-of-the-table Rockingham Flames on their home floor who are on a six-game winning streak.

Rockingham have only lost twice this season and that was thanks to buzzer beaters firstly from Lakeside's Josh Davey and then Kalamunda's Terrandus Smith.

It's a big test for the Eagles and even more so when you delve back into history with East Perth's last win against Rockingham coming in Game 3 of their playoff series on the way to the championship back in 2014.

The Flames have won all 19 encounters between the two teams since including in the finals in each of the past two seasons where it's been Rockingham ending the season of East Perth.

De'Sean Parsons is now three games into his stint with East Perth having played at the Goldfields Giants the past two seasons where he was named to the All-First Team on both occasions.

He started this NBL1 season at the West Adelaide Bearcats but now has arrived at East Perth to replace Max Rice and he is looking forward to this double-header against two challenging opponents with a chance for the Eagles to make a statement.

"I think we have a lot to make up for from the last double header we had when I first got here and I didn’t play my best basketball partly because I hurt my hand in the first practice, but there's no excuses," Parsons said.

"Now after that win in the last game this past weekend, I think it's good for us and you can blow a team out by 30 and have an easy win, but we ended up having to grind that one out and I think that will be good for us.

"So I think we can ride that momentum and this weekend is going to be good. Both teams are on the winning side of the table obviously and it's going to be a challenge for us 100 per cent because we're still gelling overall.

"But I think once we figure this out brick by brick, day by day we'll be fine and it's exciting because we have a lot of talent.

"Rocko might be the favourites right now in the league but we can't look past the Suns because they've started the season off really well and they have momentum too.

"But I think we have to protect home court against the Suns on Friday night and then just worry about Rocko on Saturday."