Eagles Recap | Women/Men Round 14

Featured image: @codexdesignstudio, Mark Filpo

The East Perth Eagles hit the road to Kalgoorlie on Saturday night with the women winning impressively over the Goldfields Giants to consolidate third position and even though the men couldn’t quite back it up, they do remain eighth.

The night's action at Evolution Mining Stadium got underway with the 100-80 victory for the Eagles women against the Giants before the Goldfields men then defeated East Perth 77-70 on Saturday night.

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WOMEN

The Eagles made the trip to Kalgoorlie with impressive form behind them and kept that going on Saturday night with the eventual 100-80 win over the Goldfields Giants.

The Giants were without superstar forward Sierra Moore which didn’t help their cause on their home floor, and East Perth were leading most of the way including by as much as 17 points in the first half.

The Eagles were still on top 55-39 by half-time and then went on with the job from there with 28 points to 20 in the last quarter to on the way to the 20-point victory to improve to a 12-4 record with the three straight victories.

East Perth ended up getting off 10 extra shots and four more free throws in the game than Goldfields with 24 offensive rebounds to 13 helping that cause on the way to winning the overall rebound count 56-35 for the game.

Sarah Mortensen once again showed her quality in the win for the Eagles finishing with 25 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals on 10/16 shooting from the field and 4/7 from three-point territory.

Stacey Barr only narrowly fell short of what would have been a massive triple double with 19 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds while Jade Williams had a big game down low for 19 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Sydney Wright also delivered 18 points, six assists and four rebounds for the Eagles, Brooke Malone 13 points and 11 boards, Aleka Kabugua two points and three rebounds, and Zaya Black two points, eight boards and three assists.

It was a tight battle through the first quarter with East Perth ending up leading 24-21 by quarter-time with Sarah Mortensen up to 11 points and Sydney Wright while Delaynie Byrne had 11 points and four rebounds for Goldfields.

The Eagles did pull down seven offensive rebounds to one to get up an extra five shot attempts to have the lead before East Perth ended up scoring 11 straight points to open up a 17-point advantage in the second frame.

East Perth ended up scoring 31 points to 17 in that second quarter on the way to leading 55-39 at the half on the back of shooting 50 per cent from the field to 44 while also getting up an extra 10 shot attempts thanks to 12 offensive rebounds to three.

Mortensen was up to 17 points by half-time with Stacey Barr adding 11 and Jade Williams nine and five rebounds in her battle with Byrne who had 14 and six for the Giants.

It was then another 17 points to 11 in the third quarter in favour of the Eagles and 28 to 20 in the fourth as they completed the deal on the 20-point victory.

Across the second half, East Perth shot 16/40 from the field and 6/15 from three-point territory opposed to the 15/40 and 5/14 from Goldfields while also pulling down another 12 offensive rebounds to 10, and 28 boards overall to 23.

MEN

The Eagles did shake off a slow start to find themselves up by four early in the fourth quarter but couldn’t quite complete the job with the Goldfields Giants ending up winning 77-70.

The Giants made a fast start scoring the first eight points of the game leading to a Carl Filpo timeout and he got an immediate response with the next seven points, but still Eagles were playing catching up most of the night.

Goldfields were leading by five points at quarter-time, by six at half-time and five at three quarter-time only for the Eagles to score the first nine points of the fourth quarter to be in front for the first time on the night.

But the Giants responded once more to end up scoring the seven-point victory to now leave the Eagles with a 7-10 record on the season with five matches and four rounds remaining.

David Okwera ended up top scoring for East Perth with 16 points to go with nine rebounds, three steals and two assists on just nine shot attempts.

Ioannis Dimakopoulos was efficient in his 18:38 of court time for 12 points, five rebounds and two assists with 4/8 shooting from the field, 2/4 from deep and 2/2 at the foul line.

Lee Roberts also had a good impact in his 14 minutes with 10 points, three rebounds and three assists to be the only player on the team with a positive in the plus-minute with the Eagles +3 with him out there.

De'Sean Parsons also had nine points, eight rebounds and three assists, Jonah Antonio nine points, four boards and three steals, Lat Mayen seven points, eight rebounds and two assists, Nick Filpo four points and three assists, and Lat Mayen seven points, eight boards and two assists.

The Giants opened up an early 10-point lead before the Eagles responded with a 7-0 run and by quarter-time it was the home team clinging to the 22-17 advantage with De'Sean Parsons having five of those points for East Perth on his former home court.

Goldfields pushed back out to an 11-point lead in the second period but again East Perth responded and it was Ioannis Dimakopoulos who provided the spark and had nine points to lead the scoring going into half-time on 3/4 shooting for the visitors.

Goldfields were still leading 44-38 by half-time and then got back up eight in the third quarter only for East Perth to respond with an 8-0 run to level scores up.

In the end, the Giants were still leading 55-50 by three quarter-time after both teams only combined for 23 points in the third period.

Then early in the fourth the Eagles grabbed the momentum and the lead for the first time in the game with Kai Kabugua starting the quarter with a three-pointer before Jonah Antonio scored ahead of two straight buckets from Lee Roberts.

Dimakopoulos then landed his second three ball of the night to push East Perth out to a four-point lead and they had all the momentum with the 12-3 run to start the final period.

But the Giants hit back once more with three balls from Michael Jok and Josh Duach, and once back in front the home team were able to stay there to end up scoring the seven-point victory.