Eagles Rd 9 Preview | Away v Hawks, Home v Wolves

Featured image: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

For the first time this NBL1 West season, both East Perth Eagles teams have a double header weekend starting on the road to the Perry Lakes Hawks and then at home to the Joondalup Wolves.

The Round 9 double for the Eagles gets underway on Friday night against the Hawks at Bendat Basketball Centre with the women first up at 6:30pm followed by the men's encounter at 8:30pm.

That leads into Saturday night back at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre with the Eagles hosting the Wolfpack with the women's match tipping off at 5pm followed by the men's at 7pm.

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WOMEN

For the first time this season the Eagles women have a double header weekend and they are looking forward to the chance to start building momentum on the road and then to maintain their unbeaten run at home.

It shapes as a fascinating double for the East Perth women firstly against the Perry Lakes Hawks at 6:30pm on Friday night at Bendat Basketball Centre before then hosting the Joondalup Wolves at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre at 5pm on Saturday.

East Perth come into Round 9 of the NBL1 West season sitting in third position having win six of their eight matches and looking to bounce back from just their second loss of 2026 last Friday night on the road to the Cockburn Cougars.

That might have ended up in a loss to the defending champions, but the Eagles were leading for much of the night and can take a lot from that now to bring into this weekend's double.

The first challenge is the Hawks on Friday night with Perry Lakes currently holding a 2-6 record and having lost their last couple of games including last Friday night in a tight one to the fourth placed Warwick Senators.

The two teams have already met this season back on Peter Campbell Basketball Arena with East Perth beating Perry Lakes 97-84 on that occasion.

However, the Hawks did give the Eagles plenty to think about with Bridgette Rettstatt finishing with 19 points and 18 rebounds with Maddy Zugna adding 18 points and Mia Satie 18 while Emma Clark didn't play.

East Perth prevailed on the back of 25 points, eight rebounds and five assists from captain Stacey Barr with Sarah Mortensen producing 18 points and nine boards, Jo Odude 17 points and 14 rebounds, Sydney Wright 14 points and four assists, Brooke Malone 11 points and six boards, and Jade Williams 10 points and five rebounds.

Then once the Eagles are finished with that game against the Hawks on Friday, they will turn their attention to hosting the Wolves on Saturday and trying to get one back on them.

Joondalup did hand East Perth their first loss of the season at Arena Joondalup back on April 17 with the Eagles playing their first game since the season-ending knee injury to Jasmin Fejo on that evening.

Barr still put up 28 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists despite the loss that night with Williams adding 17 points and six rebounds, Malone 10 points, eight boards and four assists, and Mortensen six points and seven rebounds in her East Perth debut.

In the win that night for the Wolfpack, Asianae Johnson delivered 25 points, Kim Pierre-Louis 24 and Yemiyah Morris 11 to go with 11 rebounds.

Eagles coach Jonelle Morley will have her team firmly focused on the Friday night challenge against Perry Lakes but then is looking forward to trying to stay undefeated at home on Saturday and to earn a measure of revenge on the Wolfpack.

"Our focus is definitely on Friday night, we need to get that one first before we go into the second game which is obviously against Joondalup and we absolutely owe them one for sure on our home court on Saturday night," Morley said.

"The girls will definitely get up and about for that, but we're absolutely focused on Friday night. I think the important part about playing at home is more about our own comfort levels and we're really enjoying the crowd and the people, and there's a lot of families and kids running around.

"But I think the game night experience is getting better and better in this stadium and the stuff that we're putting on at night in particular in the evening games is really cool, and it really builds our atmosphere and the crowds seem to be getting a bit bigger every week.

"A part of that is probably that the women's and the men's team are playing quite well this year. We enjoy being at home and obviously every team has that comfort level, but we also have to find that opportunity to win away and that's what we'll be looking to do on Friday night."

MEN

The East Perth Eagles will look to get one back on the Perry Lakes Hawks on Friday night and then back up their earlier season win against the Joondalup Wolves on Saturday.

The Eagles slipped to a 5-4 record on the season last Friday night with the loss on the road to the Cockburn Cougars leading into a fascinating weekend double in Round 9.

First up is East Perth taking on Perry Lakes at Bendat Basketball Centre with the Eagles trying to get one back on the Hawks for an overtime loss at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre back on Anzac Day.

On that night, new Perry Lakes imports Jack Browder and Isaiah Moses were playing their first NBL1 games and combined for 69 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.

The Eagles now will be on a mission to get that one back against the Hawks on Friday night before turning their attention to hosting the Wolves on Saturday.

East Perth did beat the Wolfpack at Arena Joondalup earlier this season 94-86 in a strong showing with David Okwera producing 21 points, seven rebounds and four assists, Lat Mayen 18 points and 13 boards, Jonah Antonio 17 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and Max Rice 11 points, six boards and four assists.

Rice will be playing his last two games for East Perth this weekend too before returning home to take up a college coaching position with the Eagles already having a readymade import replacement set to go to avoid any disruptions.

Eagles big man Ioannis Dimakopoulos is firstly looking for the chance to get one back on Perry Lakes on Friday night for the loss at home to them which doubled as the first NBL1 appearances for import pair Moses and Browder.

"Last time against Perry Lakes I think it was our game and their players just made a couple of really big-time plays and good on them," Dimakopoulos said.

"I was impressed and especially because it was the first game for their imports. Carl (coach Filpo) is massive on scouting and all that stuff, but when they haven’t played a single game you don't even know how they look really or much about that.

"But I think we're going to be a bit more ready this time and we had a good game plan, we just need to execute it a little bit better and we're a bit more aware of who does what. We do have a week to prepare for them now and I think we'll be ready."

The first season that Dimakopoulos played in the NBL1 West was with Joondalup and he was a huge reason why they made the grand final in that 2023 season including a stunning preliminary final performance where they beat the Rockingham Flames in overtime.

He still has fond memories of his time at the Wolves and likes seeing the chances they are giving to young local talent, but that doesn’t mean he won't be doing all that he can to beat them at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre on Saturday night.

"Double headers are tough to play back-to-back but when you have six players that can play as bigs, it's not that tough," Dimakopoulos said.

"We won at the Wolves and played a really good game and we have to remember that they are very dangerous team that plays at a fast pace and they have some killer players.

"They have one of the best imports in the league in CJ Turnage, massive respect to him as a teammate and as a player in the past.

"Caleb Davis can get hot at any minute and then they have their other import, (Sharif) Black, he's a really good player across any category and I like what the Wolves are doing with their youth.

"Some of their kids that I was teammates with three, four years ago are now getting 20-plus minutes and posting numbers, and they are really improving which is nice to see that finally that hard work is paying off.

"We'll still try our best to stop that obviously and make sure we are aware of that though."