Eagles Rd 11 Preview | Away v Tigers

The East Perth Eagles women will look to hit back on Saturday and the men to continue their momentum for Saturday evening's road trip south of the river against the Willetton Tigers.

The Eagles remain on the road this Saturday for Round 11 of the NBL1 West season with the women looking for a win to further consolidate fourth position when they take on the fifth placed Tigers.

The East Perth men are coming off a stirring win over the Warwick Senators and will look to build on that against a Willetton team having won four straight and having played in last year's grand final.

The women's match gets proceedings underway at 5pm with the men's clash to follow at 7pm.

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EAGLES RECAP | ROUND 10 WOMEN/MEN

WOMEN

The Eagles women have the chance to open up some space inside the top four and the chasing pack as they attempt to record the bounce back win against the Tigers on Saturday evening.

Even after last Saturday night's loss away to the Warwick Senators, the Eagles remain in fourth position in the standings coming into Round 11 with a 7-3 record.

Saturday evening's opponent are hot on their heels, though, with Willetton having now improved to a 7-4 record on the back of beating the Goldfields Giants last Saturday night in Kalgoorlie.

The winner of the game will occupy fourth spot in the NBL1 West standings by the end of the evening so even though there's plenty of time left this season, it could very well be a defining contest for both outfits.

There will be fascinating match ups all over the floor too and none more so than the battle imposing centres with Sasha Goodlett from the Eagles up against Zitina Aokuso from the Tigers.

You've also got some great athletes on either team like Awatea Leach and Emma Clarke for East Perth, and Desiree Kelley and Ajulu Thatha for Willetton while there are gun scorers on either side with Madi Torresin at the Eagles and the newly arrived Sharn Hayward at the Tigers.

So wherever you look it's going to be a fascinating contest and with Clarke preparing for her second game of the season with the Eagles having returned from a knee injury, she can't wait.

"I would definitely say Zitina and Sasha is going to be a great match up and they've got some great vets like Desiree Kelley, and Simon Parker has won championships and been in the league for ages," Clarke said.

"So we definitely know it's going to be a tough game and with them being fifth on the ladder, they've been wanting to beat a team above them so they would have been looking forward to this game.

"We are too and we just have to lock into our systems offensively and defensively, and we'll keep working on that dynamic with having added me into the squad now too.

"We have our full team now so I think that's going to do nothing but help us by getting more reps together and I'm definitely looking forward to this match up."

MEN

The Eagles men might well come into the Saturday night game with Willetton fresh off their best five quarters of the season and will be looking to keep that momentum going to try and break into the top eight.

Two weeks ago and the Eagles were staring down the barrel of back-to-back losses on the one weekend having lost to the Perth Redbacks on the Friday night before then trailing by as much as 13 to the Goldfields Giants at home on the Sunday.

However, East Perth produced a dominant fourth quarter to win that game and then kept the momentum going last Saturday night with the 122-106 win against the Warwick Senators at Warwick Stadium.

That also knocked the Senators out of top place in the process with the Eagles improving to a 5-6 record on the season and depending on other results, a win on Saturday night over the Tigers could see them end the weekend inside the top eight.

It's going to be a significant challenge, though, with Willetton coming off making the grand final last year and being ever so close to a championship and now building momentum again in 2025.

Willetton are currently sitting in third position with a 9-3 record and having won their past four matches including by 26 points last Saturday night in Kalgoorlie against the Giants, and previously in a thriller at home in overtime against the Geraldton Buccaneers.

With Max Rice and Jonah Antonio combining for 61 points and 12 threes last week against the Senators along with Ioannis Dimakopoulos hitting two huge threes late, Lee Roberts standing tall and Matthew Lang doing well as point guard, the Eagles will head to Willetton Basketball Stadium full of confidence.

Dimakopoulos has full confidence with the way the Eagles are playing right now, but also knows what a significant challenge the Tigers will be.

"For me we do have a lot of experienced players on our team and as long as we play together, and play good basketball like we have the last two games, then we will give us a chance," Dimakopoulos said.

"Even if you watch those last two games and whether we won or lost, it was a nice game to watch with how we were playing. It was good quality of basketball and as long as we keep that same focus and go there to perform, I think we'll be fine.

"Willetton is a very good team and I've been watching them a couple of games now, and they play decent basketball. I think it will just come down to the details to decide who wins."