Eagles Recap | Women/Men Round 13

Featured image: @codexdesignstudio, Mark Filpo

Sarah Mortensen produced her first NBL1 West triple double with Brooke Malone and Stacey Barr scoring 24 points in an impressive win over the Rockingham Flames while Lee Roberts' 26 points wasn’t enough in the men's match up.

East Perth played host to Rockingham at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre on Saturday night in Round 13 of the NBL1 West seas with the women opening up winning 89-80 before it was the Flames beating the Eagles in the men's contest 109-92.

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WOMEN

Sarah Mortensen had her first NBL1 West triple double with Stacey Barr and Brooke Malone scoring 24 points each as the Eagles overcame the return of Amy Atwell to beat the Rockingham Flames 89-80.

The two teams came into the Saturday night battle at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre sitting in top four positions and with the Flames trying to bounce back from a loss to the Cockburn Cougars with the Eagles having hammered the South West Slammers by 53 points.

They only met one another two weeks ago in Rockingham where the Flames did prevail by 12 points but that was on a weekend where the Eagles had lost in overtime the night before, and were without Barr, Jo Odude and McKenna Dale.

East Perth started on fire with 33 points in the first quarter with 11 of those courtesy of Barr and they were on top most of the evening but early in the fourth frame the Flames found themselves back in front.

The Eagles responded with the next nine points and that was enough to end up securing them the nine-point victory as they improve to an 11-4 record with the Flames now also 11-4 having lost their past two against fellow top four teams.

There wasn’t much that separated the teams all night but the Eagles did go 19/25 at the free-throw line opposed to the 10/14 from the Flames while the home team also pulled down 13 offensive rebounds to nine.

Mortensen recorded the first triple double in her 55-game NBL1 West career with 11 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.

Stacey Barr had 11 points in the first quarter and nine in the third on the way to 24 for the game with nine rebounds and four assists while Brooke Malone delivered 24 points, five assists, three rebounds and two steals on 7/9 field goal shooting and 9/13 at the foul line.

Jade Williams also had 10 points and five rebounds, Sydney Wright 11 points and two assists, Zaya Black six points and four boards, and Jo Odude three points and eight rebounds.

The two teams only met two weeks ago with the Flames winning at home but the Eagles had plenty working against them that they didn’t have as obstacles this time, and as a result started on fire on their home floor.

East Perth put up 33 points in the first quarter on 63 per cent shooting including 5/8 from downtown with Stacey Barr and Zaya Black going 4/4 between them from beyond the arc for a combined 17 points.

Rockingham were only managing to shoot at 33 per cent including 2/11 from downtown and as a result it was the Eagles leading 33-21 by quarter-time.

The Flames did outscore the Eagles in the second quarter but by half-time it was still the home team leading 49-43 even without Barr adding to her 11 points in the second frame.

Sydney Wright was up to nine points and Brooke Malone eight with the Eagles going 8/16 from behind the three-point line to just 5/18 from the Flames in the opening 20 minutes.

Amy Atwell was warming up nicely for Rockingham and had 15 points to half-time and then hit another three triples in the third period but still it was the Eagles leading 71-65 by three quarter-time with another nine points in the frame from Barr and eight from Malone.

Rockingham were always going to make a charge and they did hit the front early in the fourth quarter following an and-one from reigning MVP Teige Morrell, but her direct opponent Jade Williams immediately responded with two buckets up the other end.

Malone then scored going to the basket and Barr hit a three ball and from there the Eagles retained control on the way to the impressive nine-point victory.

MEN

The Eagles continued to struggle against the Rockingham Flames at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre on Saturday night with the league-leading visitors going on to score the 109-92 victory.

East Perth were back home at Peter Campbell Basketball Arena after returning to the winner's list in Bunbury last Saturday night against the South West Slammers ahead of hosting the Flames on Saturday.

Rockingham arrived on an eight-game winning streak and then took control early and ended up leading by as much as 30 points before ending up winning by 17 to make it 21 in-a-row against the Eagles dating back to 2014.

East Perth do remain in eighth position despite the loss with a 7-9 record with six games of the season remaining.

Rockingham ended up shooting 57 per cent for the night to the 44 from East Perth and that's where the major different in the game was with no other major differences with 81 shot attempts each, the Flames only having three more free throws, two more offensive rebounds and one fewer turnovers.

Eagles captain Lee Roberts delivered his best performance of the season with 26 points and three rebounds with 11/18 shooting from the field and 3/5 from behind the three-point arc.

Jonah Antonio returned to the East Perth line-up for the first time since May 23 and ended up with 17 points, five assists and four steals.

De'Sean Parson also produced 16 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals, David Okwera 12 points, six boards and three assists, Kai Kabugua five points and three rebounds, Ioannis Dimakopoulos five points, Lat Mayen five points and 11 boards, and Nick Filpo four points and four assists.

It was the second meeting between the two teams with just two weeks in between as East Perth tried again to beat Rockingham for the first time since the 2014 playoffs, but it wasn’t the start they were hoping for with the Flames leading 30-12 by the end of the first quarter.

Rockingham were shooting at 52 per cent from the field to 26 while getting to the foul like five times to one while having zero turnovers and forcing East Perth into four along with pulling down six offensive rebounds.

That saw the Flames end up getting up six extra shots than the Eagles who did have seven of their 12 points scored by captain Lee Roberts.

It was then a high scoring second quarter from both teams with 65 points between them with Rockingham putting up another 33 with 14/20 shooting while East Perth added 32 on 12/22 shooting with Roberts and De'Sean Parsons both up to 11 points by half-time.

But the Flames were still leading 63-44 going into the break before they then had another 30 points in the third frame with 14/23 shooting while East Perth added 23 on 9/19 shooting.

The Eagles did finish well with 25 points to 16 in the fourth quarter with 10/21 shooting with 4/12 from downtown but it only stopped Rockingham winning by 17 points in the finish.