West Spotlight | Eagles beat Lightning to stay eighth

Featured image: Mark Filpo, @codexdesignstudio

The winner was going to finish Thursday night in eighth position and it was the East Perth Eagles holding out the Lakeside Lightning for the crucial 71-69 home win despite getting up 25 less shot attempts for the game.

Coming into the match up at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre and the Eagles were still in eighth spot after beating the South West Slammers last Friday night with the Lightning hot on their heels after Saturday's win over the Goldfields Giants.

That set the stage for the Thursday night match up and Jonah Antonio caught fire early for 11 first quarter points for East Perth but Lakeside were up one by half-time.

The Lightning then only scored five points in nine minutes of the third quarter with the Eagles going up as much of 13 and then holding on in the finish on the back of being more efficient offensively when they didn’t turn the ball over and a strong defensive showing led by Antonio.

The win keeps East Perth in eighth position at 9-10 with Lakeside now facing an uphill battle to take their place ahead of the finals at 8-12 with just two games to go.

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It turned out quite the fascinating night by the finish as the teams battled over eighth spot with East Perth shooting 44 per cent to 31, but Lakeside got up an extra 25 shots for the game on the back of collecting 20 offensive rebounds and the Eagles coughing up 22 turnovers.

But the Lightning only hit 25/80 from the field and 6/29 from downtown highlighted by star import guard Isaiah Lewis going 3/18 largely thanks to a standout defensive performance by Jonah Antonio.

East Perth got the win on being more efficient when not throwing the ball away and with a strong defensive showing with De'Sean Parsons also having 19 of his 25 points in the second half to go with six rebounds and two assists.

David Okwera was back from Australian Boomers duties for 16 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks despite battling foul trouble with Antonio having 11 of his 12 points in the opening quarter while having four rebounds and two assists.

Considering the extra shots the Lightning created, they will be kicking themselves for missing a chance to go into eighth position with Josh Davey ending up with 11 points and 15 rebounds with six of those at the offensive end.

Michael Imariagbe top scored for 19 points, eight rebounds and three steals with Yahui Sun adding 12 points and four assists, and Lewis eight points, eight assists, five rebounds and two steals.

Eighth position went on the line between the two teams and the Eagles had the better of the opening quarter to be leading 20-16 with Jonah Antonio hitting a couple of threes on his way to 11 points with David Okwera also going 2/2 from deep fresh off playing with the Australian Boomers.

Lakeside got right back into the contest in the second term and East Perth coughing up eight turnovers was a big reason for that while the Lightning also pulled down eight offensive rebounds.

That meant the Lightning took an extra nine shots and the only four free throws of the quarter to end up with 18 points to 13 to go into half-time with the slender 34-33 advantage.

Things changed again in the third quarter and East Perth restricted Lakeside to 10 points in just 10 minutes including just five of those in the opening nine minutes.

That saw the Eagles able to score 19 points in that time to be leading by 12 and then retaining the 52-44 advantage by three quarter-time with the Lightning shooting 3/23 for the term.

Lakeside then also scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to get back within three before David Okwera steadied East Perth after sitting out a lot of the third quarter after picking up a third foul.

Okwera knocked down a three ball to put the Eagles back up eight which was again the margin with 20 seconds to go when he also knocked down two free throws.

Lakeside sent a late scare into East Perth with threes to Michael Imariagbe and Tyson Kelly, but the home team held on for the critical two-point victory as time expired.

East Perth are now back in action on Saturday night on the road to the Perth Redbacks while the Lightning have just two home games left starting next Saturday against the Warwick Senators.

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EAST PERTH EAGLES 71 (Parsons 25, Okwera 16, Antonio 12)

LAKESIDE LIGHTNING 69 (Imariagbe 19, Sun 12, Davey 11)