Eagles Recap | Men Round 17

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Despite Saturday night's loss to the Geraldton Buccaneers on the road, the East Perth Eagles are now locked into a third straight NBL1 West finals appearance with other results going their way at the same time.

The Eagles arrived at Active West Stadium having won on their last two visits the previous two seasons to Geraldton, and a repeat dose would ensure a third straight finals appearance too without having to rely on any other results.

Bute the Buccaneers are the defending champions and came into the match up still sitting in top spot this season and they would end up proving too strong for the Eagles with the eventual 91-73 victory.

Despite the result, East Perth are now locked into eighth position with one round of the regular season remaining with a 10-11 record and now sitting two games clear of the ninth placed Perth Redbacks and 10th ranked Lakeside Lightning.

That means that the Eagles will play finals for the third straight season now in 2026 and join the women's team being locked into post-season action with one round to go where they host the Cockburn Cougars this Friday night.

East Perth did end up going 13/21 at the foul line to 8/13 from Geraldton for the game while also pulling down 12 offensive rebounds to nine, but the Eagles did have another 20 turnovers while the Buccs shot 47 per cent from the field to 39, and 13/36 from the outside to 8/26.

Jonah Antonio top scored for East Perth with 21 points, six rebounds and two steals with 5/9 three-point shooting ahead of now departing for the Commonwealth Games to represent the Australian Gangurrus in the 3x3 competition.

Lat Mayen added 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Eagles, De'Sean Parsons 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals, and David Okwera 14 points and eight rebounds on 5/7 field goal shooting.

Nick Filpo also had four points and two rebounds, and captain Lee Roberts four points and four boards.

East Perth had good memories of their last two visits to Geraldton having won there for the first time in a decade back in 2024 and backing it up last year despite the Buccaneers going on to win their second championship in three years.

It was a tight opening quarter to the contest between two finals bound teams with the scores all locked together at 22-22 by quarter-time.

East Perth did start well to the second quarter to briefly hit the front but Geraldton responded to end up having 23 points to 16 in the second period on the way to the 45-38 advantage by half-time.

Josh Keyes was already up to 20 points for the Buccaneers and Matt Norman 16 with 4/6 shooting from deep while David Okwera had 11 for the Eagles and Jonah Antonio 10.

The lead for the Buccaneers got out to 12 points in the third quarter and they were still up by 10 at three quarter-time before the lead got out to 19 in the fourth and then the Eagles did manage to outscore the home team the rest of the way to bring the final margin to 18.

The Eagles are now locked into eighth position no matter what happens this Friday night when they host the fourth placed Cockburn Cougars at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.