West Spotlight | Buccs win big to honour Wundenberg

Featured image: Vikki Edwards @vadele photography

Triple championship winning legend Mat Wundenberg was out there to start in his 550th NBL1 West game before his Geraldton Buccaneers took charge with Cooper Creek and Josh Keyes unstoppable in the eventual 102-74 win over the East Perth Eagles.

Both teams came into the Sunday match up at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre having won the night before with the Eagles beating the Eastern Suns while the Buccs started their road double handing the Willetton Tigers a first loss of 2026.

A sore achilles coming into the weekend after playing nearly 30 minutes a game so far this season meant Wundenberg was never going to be out there long, but he started his 550th appearance and then left the rest to his teammates.

The Buccs were still without Devondrick Walker, but the additions this weekend of Creek and Keyes have been massive and they combined for 60 points and 24 rebounds.

Geraldton ended up leading East Perth by as much as 30 points too before winning by 28 as they now head home at 5-2 as defending champions with the Eagles 5-3 having split their weekend.

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Last weekend at home to Mandurah and the Buccs were just battling to compete with Josh Keyes and Cooper Creek having not yet arrived, Brendan Redhead not yet playing and with Devondrick Walker out injured.

While Redhead and Walker were still unavailable this weekend, Creek and Keyes were on deck and they proved unstoppable against the Eagles on Sunday.

Creek finished with 32 points, 14 rebounds and two steals on 10/14 field goal shooting along with 5/7 from three-point range while Keyes delivered 28 points, 10 boards and five assists.

Liam Hunt appreciated the help in the front court but still had 17 points, 12 rebounds and four assists with Matthew Norman hitting 3/7 from deep for 14 points, five rebounds and two assist, and Verle Williams delivering 11 points, 10 assists and five boards.

Lat Mayen ended up top-scoring with 18 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals for East Perth with David Okwera adding 16 points and five assists but the pair only managed to shoot 11/33 from the field.

Jonah Antonio was the only other Eagles player to reach double-figures for 11 points and five rebounds with Max Rice ending up with nine points on 3/4 three-point shooting but he didn’t get up another attempt the entire second half.

Both teams were fresh off playing the night before and winning with Geraldton putting three-time championship winner and former captain Mat Wundenberg into the starting line-up to honour his 550th game.

He was only out there for 26 seconds having come into the weekend sore already and then East Perth got going early with a seven-point lead to be up 16-9 leading to a Dayle Joseph timeout.

The Buccs responded to the talk from their three-time championship winning coach and went on a 9-0 run and ended up leading 27-23 by quarter-time with Cooper Creek and Matthew Norman combining for 18 of those points.

The Buccaneers then blew the game wide open in the second quarter by piling on 34 points on the back of shooting 9/17 from the field with 4/9 from downtown and then going 12/13 at the foul line.

East Perth managed just 11 points opposed to that on 4/18 shooting and that saw Geraldton go into half-time in control 61-34 with Creek up to 17 points with Josh Keyes having 16 and Liam Hunt already a double double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

 That lead got out to 29 points in the third quarter for the Buccaneers but East Perth did attempt to mount a fight back and put up 28 themselves leading into three quarter-time with Lat Mayen and David Okwera doing their best to lift their side.

That had the deficit back to 17 at three quarter-time but the Buccs weren’t to be denied and finished off with 23 points to 12 in the final stanza to complete the 28-point victory and make it a perfect double on the road with the two wins to celebrate the 550-game milestone of Wundenberg.

The Buccs will now be back home on Saturday night against the South West Slammers where they will officially celebrate the 550 games of Wundenberg while the Eagles have another big test on the road to the Cockburn Cougars on Friday.

NBL1 WEST 2026 SEASON | ROUND 7

EAST PERTH EAGLES 74 (Mayen 18, Okwera 16, Antonio 11)

GERALDTON BUCCANEERS 102 (Creek 32, Keyes 28, Hunt 17)