Buccaneers clip Eagles' wings
The Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers have come away with their second win in as many nights with a 95 – 79 defeat of the Australian Central East Perth Eagles.
Geraldton's third straight win saw it move within percentage of the top eight, just four points behind eight placed Willetton in point differential, while East Perth fell to 10th spot with a 4-5 record.
The Eagles, buoyed by Friday night’s win over Perry Lakes, jumped out to an early nine point lead mid way through the first quarter.
But the Buccaneers kept the game alive with an eight point run to get within a point and continued to apply the pressure to take a 32 -29 lead into the first break.
The second quarter continued at the same frenetic basket for basket pace of the first, before the Eagles suffered a score two minutes in when big man Tom Jervis went down with an ankle injury. Jervis, who is in MVP form, spent six minutes getting treatment and was able to return to the game.
By this time Geraldton had established a 12 point lead, but the Eagles staged a courageous fight back to trim the Buccaneers lead to 54-49 at the half-time break.
Geraldton's Ben Pepper was a dominant force in the first half going into the break with 20 points.
East Perth lifted its intensity in the third quarter, chipping away at the Buccaneers' lead to get within two points at one stage.
But the visitors proved to be too strong, however, at one stage increasing their lead to 14 points and finishing the quarter still ahead 73 – 67.
With the support of their vocal crowd the final quarter was all Buccaneers as they outscored the Eagles 22 to 12 to take home the victory.
Buccaneers head coach Ray Evans was pleased with how his team performed.
"We played solid defence, and ran our offence a lot better than we have in the past," he said.
"I was happy with Michael Lay and how he controlled the tempo of the game, and it was good to see the ball in Pepper's hands, he is a very big contributor for us."
The Buccaneers best were Pepper with 34 points and 11 rebounds and Lay with 19 points and 10 assists.
The standout for the Eagles was Jervis with 25 points and 21 rebounds. He was assisted by Daniel Thomas with 14 points and seven rebounds.
Article by Leigh Dalton at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre
Photo by Mick Cronin
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