Eagles Rd 12 Preview | Away v Slammers

Featured image: Mark Filpo, @codexdesignstudio

Both East Perth Eagles teams are trying to bounce back from a pair of NBL1 West losses last weekend when they head south to take on the South West Slammers on Saturday night.

The evening's action at Eaton Recreation Centre gets underway at 5pm with the women's match up between the Eagles and Slammers followed by the men's contest at 7pm.

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WOMEN

The Eagles will be looking to hit back from losing consecutive games for the first time this season when they take on the South West Slammers on the road this Saturday evening.

Not only were the Eagles facing a tough double header last weekend hosting the Eastern Suns on Friday night and then being away to the Rockingham Flames on Saturday, but they had to do it without key players.

Captain Stacey Barr, new signing McKenna Dale, important big Jo Odude and crafty guard Jaymie Symons were all missing for both games which made things extra challenging for East Perth.

The end result was an overtime loss at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre on Friday night to Kalamunda before then putting in a strong showing away to the Flames before being overrun by the league-leading Rockingham.

Those results leave East Perth in fourth position coming into Round 12 of the NBL1 West season with a 9-4 record as they now take on the Slammers this Saturday evening at Eaton Recreation Centre.

The Slammers have now lost their past three matches to slip to a 3-9 record and even though that means they are currently in bottom place, they are also just the two games out of eighth position so their season is still well and truly alive.

The game on Saturday will be the first time that the two teams have met in the NBL1 West since May 23 last year when East Perth scored the 93-75 win against South West on Peter Campbell Basketball Arena.

In that game last year, Zaya Black was playing her first game of the season for the Slammers and had two points and three assists, but this time around she'll be playing with the Eagles and likely remaining in the starting line-up as she has over the past two weeks.

From that game last year that the Eagles won, the only remaining players that will be out there for East Perth 13 months later will be Ari van Vliet and Aleka Kabugua.

Speaking of Kabugua, she is fresh off playing the most minutes of her NBL1 West career in the double header last weekend and is looking forward to trying to help the Eagles get back on the winner's list against the Slammers.

"I think especially coming off the back of last weekend where they weren’t the two results we wanted, this is a really good reset for us," Kabugua said.

"They're a team that's up and coming, they've got some good players out there and their starters are pretty decent.

"So they'll give us a good run but I think it's a good playing field for us to hopefully get back to how we want to play defensively and offensively. I think there's some good match ups out there too so it should be good for us down there in Bunbury."

MEN

The Eagles men do remain inside the NBL1 West's top eight despite a tough run over the last seven games but their chance to get things on track ahead of the playoffs begins on Saturday night against the South West Slammers.

The Eagles head to Eaton Recreation Centre having now lost six of the past seven matches including lost both games of the double header last weekend at home to the Kalamunda Eastern Suns and away to the Rockingham Flames.

That leaves East Perth in eighth position in the NBL1 West with a 6-8 record as they take on a South West team currently with a 1-13 record and having lost their past 13 matches.

Despite that record, the Slammers have been significantly more competitive than that suggests including last Saturday night at home to the Perry Lakes Hawks where they were leading most of the way before eventually falling just four points short.

Saturday night's game will be the first time the two teams have met this season and going back to 2025, they played just the once at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre when the Eagles beat the Slammers by 15 points.

That was all the way back on May 23 last year so it's been almost 13 months since East Perth and South have played one another and it does shape as a fascinating match up on Saturday night.

The Eagles will be at full strength as well welcoming back Jonah Antonio after playing with the Australian Gangurrus at the 3x3 World Cup in Poland.

That will mark the first time that Antonio, Sharif Watson and De'Sean Parsons have all been available at the same time to play together in 2026.

The Slammers might have lost their past 13 matches but they are a dangerous team including having Philmon Gebrhiwet who is averaging 19.5 points and 5.4 rebounds, Jhaylon Martinez 12.9 points and 6.6 boards, Cooper Metcalfe 11.8 points and 7.0 rebounds, and Dante Matakatea 9.7 points, 3.9 boards and 2.2 assists.

Eagles coach Carl Filpo knows that his team certainly can't head down to Bunbury and take anything for granted against the Slammers.

"Records aside, there's no bad teams in the league and Slammers had that game on the weekend and they've had plenty more like it where you could say they could have and should have won that one," Filpo said.

"So we expect them to be up and about, we expect them to take the fight to us and they've got a lot of youth there. They go hard and run hard, and we can't be complacent and we're confident going down there."