Kalgoorlie trip comes at right time for Eagles

Featured image: Mark Filpo (@codexdesignstudio)

East Perth Eagles coach Carl Filpo will be hoping a road trip to Kalgoorlie to play the Goldfields Giants on Saturday night will be just the tonic to kickstart their NBL1 West season and he's sure De'Sean Parsons will want to be leading the charge.

The Eagles did suffer a 17-point defeat to the Rockingham Flames back on Saturday night to mean they've now lost seven of the last matches, but they are still in eighth position with a 7-9 record.

And coach Filpo saw positives too in the performance after quarter-time where they were only outscored by a point by the league-leaders who are on a 10-game winning run themselves now.

Captain Lee Roberts had his best game of the season with 26 points while it was only a third game with both Parsons and Jonah Antonio together in the line-up.

The next challenge for the Eagles is a trip to Kalgoorlie to take on the Giants this Saturday night and Filpo will be hoping it's just the tonic to build to a strong finish for his team.

"We have a couple of activities for going up there and we're hopeful that will help to bring the group together," Filpo said.

"They are a good bunch of guys and there's no reason why having some more time off the court and being together won't be a good thing. So I'm hopeful this road trip will be good for us."

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Parsons return to Kalgoorlie

Another aspect to look forward to about Saturday night's game with the Giants is that it's the first time that Parsons will make his returning to Kalgoorlie to face his former side since joining East Perth.

He has been open about how much he's looking forward to returning to his former home both to see some familiar faces and to play against his old team, and Filpo is expect big things from him.

"I think he's excited for sure and I definitely see it as a positive. It gives him something extra to play for and he wants to play well in front of his friends and people that he knows out there," Filpo said.

"I think that will help to drive him but De'Sean's a competitor and a winner so I think the win is the biggest drive for him. If we can get that win or be on our way to it, he'll be up and about for sure."

Learning from loss to the Flames

Looking back on Saturday night against the Flames and it was a 21st straight defeat for East Perth to Rockingham dating back to 2015, but for Filpo it all came back to the rough first quarter.

The Flames were already leading 30-12 by quarter-time where they shot 13/25 from the field to the 5/19 from the Eagles and that ultimately was where the game was won and lost.

"We brought Ioannis in for the second quarter and slowed them down a little bit and he played really well there, but it was just the start that was horrific and we just couldn’t put the ball in," Filpo said.

"We didn’t take the best shots that we could have found and defensively I was happy for the first seven minutes anyway, keeping them to 10 which is well under their average.

"Then they just went on a run but our second quarter offensively I thought was fantastic to have 32 points in the quarter against the top team. We just didn’t do a great job of stopping them and just needed that spark or poise and the right shot selection in the first five minutes."

Not as bad as it might have felt

The first quarter was bad for East Perth against Rockingham, there's no getting around that, but after quarter-time at the same time Filpo did see plenty to be encouraged about.

After going 5/19 in the first quarter and 1/9 from deep and just 1/1 at the line, over the last three quarters the Eagles did go 31/62, 8/22 and 10/12 while limiting the potent Rockingham to 79 points after quarter-time, and 46 in the second half.

"I know the game's got four quarters, but from the second to the fourth we won the game by one," Filpo said.

"We were -18 by the end of the first and then -17 at the end of the game and they only had eight three-pointers, which against them I'd take that obviously before the game.

"It might have been our lowest turnovers for the season and we still lost the rebound count, but we did a much better job than the previous game so it wasn’t all bad.

"There were plenty of positives to take from it and when we get that ball moving, and find those great shots, we look really great. It's just when we pull it early and make some decisions that go with that and you end up with a shot that you don’t want and that's on us."

Getting the team together now

While Parsons and Antonio did play two games together back when the former first arrived and before the latter had to leave for the 3x3 World Cup in Poland, Saturday night was their first time since Parsons has settled for them to play together.

Combine that with the chemistry that will continue to grow with them and Lat Mayen, David Okwera and the rest of the group, and Filpo is feeling good about how the Eagles can still come together in the home stretch.

"Lee gave us his captain's game and I thought he was outstanding, and he was just rock solid and did what he had to do," Filpo said.

"We still don't have Sharif (Watson) and Jermaine's (Malie) out of the squad, but for the most part I liked the signs we saw.

"Jonah came back after missing five games and he gives us a different look as well, and overall yes I did like the signs of how we're looking."