Eagles Recap | Women Round 11

Eagles Recap | Women Round 11

By Chris Pike for East Perth Eagles

Eastpertheagles

It wasn’t quite the double header the East Perth Eagles were hoping with some key players missing in the losses to the Eastern Suns and Rockingham Flames.

Featured image: @codexdesignstudio, Mark Filpo

The absence of some crucial players made life challenging for the East Perth Eagles and that led into an overtime home loss to the Eastern Suns on Friday night and then a loss less than 24 hours later on the road to the league-leading Rockingham Flames.

The double header started on Friday night at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre with the Eastern Suns ending up beating the Eagles 82-80 in overtime.

East Perth then put in a strong showing on Saturday at Mike Barnett Sports Complex in the absence of Stacey Barr, McKenna Dale, Jo Odude and Jaymie Symons but the Rockingham Flames ended up prevailing 79-67.

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FRIDAY

It was an overtime thriller for the Eagles to open their double header weekend on Friday night with the Eastern Suns ending up prevailing 82-80 in a dramatic finish.

East Perth were back home at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre having won all five matches there so far this season up against a Kalamunda team trying to stay in the finals mix.

The Eagles did come into the clash minus Stacey Barr, Jo Odude, McKenna Dale and Jaymie Symons, but produced a big fourth quarter performance to come back from a 15-point deficit to get the game to overtime.

But in the end Sydney Wright was denied a call on her late drive and the Suns held on to win by two points and hand the Eagles a first home loss of 2026.

Sarah Mortensen was back into the line-up for East Perth having returned home to Denmark the previous week and she finished with 24 points, 13 rebounds and four assists on 11/21 field goal shooting.

Sydney Wright also produced 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists with Brooke Malone adding 16 points, seven boards, three assists and two blocked shots, and Jade Williams eight points, seven rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots.

Aleka Kabugua then embraced her opportunities to play and end up with eight points, three rebound and a steal in 27 minutes while Zaya Black contributed four points, four assists, three rebounds and two steals, Amber Land two points and two rebounds, and Ari Van Vliet three boards.

Sarah Mortensen did score nine points in the opening quarter for East Perth but the rest of the team managed just another seven and the group shot at 6/19 in the first 10 minutes for the Eastern Suns to be leading 21-16 by quarter-time.

Kalamunda then opened up a 12-point lead in the second quarter and were still on top 43-32 by half-time despite Mortensen having 15 points for East Perth and Sydney Wright having added nine.

That pair had scored the 24 points on 11/21 shooting but the rest of the team managed just 3/19 from the floor while as a group they went just 1/11 from three-point range.

Mortensen added another seven points in the third quarter and Wright five with the Eagles scoring 18 points but still the Eastern Suns were leading 59-50 by three quarter-time.

All of a sudden the Suns were up by 15 when they scored the first six points of the fourth quarter but East Perth responded with 22 points to seven over the last eight minutes.

By the time Brooke Malone landed a three-pointer with 2:30 to play, the Eagles were right back within a point before Wright made 1/2 at the line with 15 seconds to go to level scores up.

Jade Williams was able to grab the offensive rebound on that second miss from Wright, and then the Eagles point guard was fouled again made both at the line this time for East Perth to be leading 72-70.

Yumi Knoll then scored for Kalamunda and the game went to overtime with the scores locked at 72-72.

Williams scored first for East Perth in the extra period before Aleka Kabugua hit two free throws to keep the home team up by two and eventually Malone made a tough layup for the Eagles to be up 80-79 with 30 seconds left.

Knoll was then rewarded for drawing contact up one end and made two free throws for Kalamunda and then up the other end, it appeared a similar story for Wright who attacked the basket.

However, there was no whistle this time and in the end that helped the Suns to secure the two-point win.

SATURDAY

The Eagles had to back up from that overtime game the night before to take on the fresh league-leaders and put in a strong showing before eventually the Rockingham Flames claimed the 79-67 victory

Despite having played 45 minutes the night before and still missing a string of key players, the Eagles took up the challenge against the Flames at Mike Barnett Sports Complex and managed to open up a seven-point lead in the second term.

East Perth were still leading 39-37 by half-time but then just managed eight points in third quarter with Rockingham working on top before securing the eventual 12-point win.

Sarah Mortensen had another strong showing for East Perth delivering 21 points, 12 rebounds and three assists while Jade Williams contributed 21 points, four boards and two assists on 9/15 field goal shooting.

Brooke Malone also finished with eight points, 10 rebounds and six assists, Zaya Black six points, five boards, four assists and three steals, and Aleka Kabugua six points, two rebounds and two steals while playing another 15 minutes.

Sydney Wright ended up with two points, two rebounds and two assists, Ari van Vliet two points, a rebound and an assist, and Amber Land two rebounds to go with a point.

It was a big ask for the Eagles to back up the overtime loss the night before and taking on the fresh league-leading Flames on their home floor with Stacey Barr, McKenna Dale, Jo Odude and Jaymie Symons all still unavailable.

Rockingham were clinging to the 18-17 lead by quarter-time with the Flames shooting 6/16 from the field to the 6/18 from the Eagles with East Perth keeping themselves in the contest with the five offensive rebounds.

The Eagles then worked on top with a 7-0 run in the second term and as a result of that went into half-time with the narrow 39-37 lead with Sarah Mortensen up to 13 points and Jade Williams 11.

That paid scored the 24 points on 9/15 shooting between them while the rest of the team managed just the 15 points on 5/21 shooting, but East Perth had done well to hold the high-powered Rockingham to just the 37 points on 36 per cent field goal shooting.

Rockingham then worked on top in the third quarter and while they only scored 15 points themselves on 7/18 shooting, but they limited East Perth to just eight points on 3/15 shooting with seven turnovers.

The Flames then had the best quarter of the game from either team with 27 points in the last quarter while limiting the Eagles to 20 on the way to the 12-point victory to retain top spot.