Eagles Recap | Women/Men Round 4

Featured image: @codexdesignstudio, Mark Filpo

The East Perth Eagles suffered their first loss of the NBL1 West season on Friday night before the men's team made another strong statement with their win against the Joondalup Wolves at Arena Joondalup.

It was a pair of fascinating match ups for the Eagles at Arena Joondalup in Round 4 of the NBL1 West season with the women's team putting their undefeated start on the line.

In the end, it was the Wolfpack who ended that streak beating East Perth 77-72.

The men's match was to follow and the Eagles handed the Wolves their first loss of the 2026 season by making it three straight themselves defeating Joondalup 94-86.

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WOMEN

The Eagles women welcomed in Sarah Mortensen and put their undefeated start to the season on the line but it wasn’t quite to be with the Joondalup Wolves ending up prevailing 77-72.

East Perth arrived at Arena Joondalup on the back of beating the Willetton Tigers, Mandurah Magic and Warwick Senators to open the new season, but it had been a mixed week leading into the Round 4 match.

While Sarah Mortensen arrived, there was heartbreak for Jasmin Fejo who ruptured her ACL at training on Tuesday night and after a blistering start to her season, it's now over as a result.

Still the Eagles were leading 24-20 by quarter-time before the Wolves worked on top in the second term on the way to scoring the eventual five-point victory with East Perth now slipping to a 3-1 record after the opening four rounds.

Stacey Barr made a hot start to the game for the Eagles with 15 points in the opening quarter and ended the night with 28 to go with 13 rebounds, seven assists and two steals on 11/33 shooting from the field, 3/13 from three-point land and 3/3 at the free-throw line.

Jade Williams played her best game of the season with the Eagles ending up with 17 points, six rebounds and two blocks.

Brooke Malone added 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists, Sydney Wright five points, four boards and three assists, Jo Odude four points and four rebounds, and Zaya Black two points, three boards and two assists.

Two-time championship winner Sarah Mortensen also made her first appearance with the Eagles having arrived during the week having just finished her season in Greece and also recently playing with Denmark at the European Championships.

She played 24 minutes for six points, seven rebounds and two assists.

The Wolves scored their first win of the season with Asianae Johnson finishing with 25 points with Kim Pierre-Louis adding 24 and Perth Lynx WNBL import big Yemiyah Morris 11 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks.

East Perth came out and put their winning streak on the line with Stacey Barr on fire in the first quarter by putting up 15 points and on the back of that, the Eagles were leading 24-20 by quarter-time.

East Perth had forced Joondalup into seven turnovers and held them to 43 per cent shooting along with missing both their three-point attempts and both free throws although the Wolves stayed in touch through nine offensive rebounds.

The Wolfpack worked on top in the second quarter with a 9-0 run and that saw the home team move out to an 11-point lead and they ended up outscoring the Eagles 27 points to 17 in the quarter to go into half-time on top 47-41.

That was despite Barr adding another nine points for East Perth in the period and by half-time she had 24 points to her name on the back of shooting 10/20 from the field with 2/4 from downtown and 2/2 at the foul line while collecting five of the team's nine offensive rebounds.

The Eagles were able lock in defensively in the third quarter and helped the Wolves to just the 13 points on 5/18 shooting including 1/10 from beyond the arc and they scored 16 points themselves.

That saw East Perth be just three points down at three quarter-time and while things remained tight in the last term with Joondalup's lead never getting beyond six, the Eagles couldn’t quite get back in front and suffered a first loss of the season to the tune of five points.

MEN

The Eagles continued to build some impressive momentum this men's season with the third consecutive win having handed the Joondalup Wolves a first loss with the 94-86 victory.

East Perth beat the Wolves at Arena Joondalup for a first finals victory since 2014 last year and then returned to the same venue on Friday night and repeated the dose with their third win and handing the Wolfpack a first defeat of 2026 in the process.

The Eagles might have had 24 turnovers in the game but did a lot of other things impressively even while shooting 5/21 from three-point range. But they did still shoot 48 per cent from the field and went 25/30 at the foul line.

East Perth also helped to limited Joondalup to shooting just 35 per cent and 5/37 from three-point range.

David Okwera, Lat Mayen and Jonah Antonio were all part of NBL26 teams ahead of this NBL1 West season, and showed why in the win combining for 56 points, 27 rebounds, 12 assists, eight steals and five blocked shots.

Okwera delivered 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists, three steals and three blocks with Mayen providing 18 points, 13 boards and two steals, and Antonio 17 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

Max Rice added 11 points, six rebounds and four steals, Ioannis Dimakopoulos 11 points and two boards, Bing Huang six points and two rebounds, and Nick Filpo four points, four boards and four assists.

East Perth also unveiled a new face with import big Steve Weingarten who fresh off arriving from the United States during the week he played 1:22 and hit a shot under the basket as he marks his return to a league he last played in back in 2013 at the Goldfields Giants.

Sharif Black finished with 30 points, eight rebounds and four steals for the Wolves with CJ Turnage adding 15 points, eight boards and six assists, and Caleb Davis 14 points and seven rebounds.

It had all the hallmarks for so many reasons as one of the games of the season already coming into it. The first quarter did nothing to change that with the Eagles scoring nine straight points early in response to the Wolves starting off 4-0.

Jonah Antonio and Lat Mayen then helped East Perth to the 16-7 advantage. The Eagles were still on top 27-21 by the end of one on the back of 21 of those points coming from Mayen, Antonio and David Okwera.

The Eagles shot a scorching 71 per cent in the quarter and didn’t miss inside the arc while the Wolves went just at 38 per cent and 2/11 from behind the three-point line despite the 10 points from CJ Turnage.

East Perth then surged out to a 15-point advantage in the second term and that was still the lead going into half-time again.

The Eagles were still shooting 53 per cent from the field to 30 from the Wolfpack and still could scarcely miss inside the three-point arc going 16/23.

Things kicked up a gear in the third quarter and Joondalup scored nine straight points to get the home crowd behind them with Sharif Black catching fire. By three quarter-time, he and fellow Detroit-local Turnage had 34 of the Wolves' 62 points.

The Eagles were able to take back control in the final term and got back out to a 15-point lead on the way to the eventual eight-point victory as they held out a Wolfpack team that did keep coming desperate to avoid a first defeat of 2026 against the same team that ended their 2025.