Geraldton Buccaneers go down at home for first time in 657 days after falling against the East Perth Eagles

The Geraldton Buccaneers’ home winning streak of 16 games has been snapped after the side fell 87-72 to the East Perth Eagles on Saturday. Activewest Stadium had become a home fortress in the past two seasons, with the side going undefeated there last season as they went on to win the grand final. This year was another strong start for the side, with the Buccaneers holding second on the ladder with an undefeated record going into Saturday’s clash. With the NBL1 West celebrating Pink Round league-wide for the Mother’s Day weekend, the Buccaneers were kitted up in their special pink jerseys, showing support for Australians affected by breast cancer. East Perth came out fast and forced the reigning champs to play catch-up to start the game after trailing by nine points early. The contest was led by slim margins for the rest of the match, with the Eagles hitting a late three to go up by one-point at half-time. Then Aaron Ralph hit a three at the three-quarter time buzzer to give Geraldton a one-point lead for the final term. The fourth quarter is where East Perth ran away with the win, as the Buccaneers couldn’t get fluid scoring and the visiting team knocked down seven threes to take the 15-point win. The loss not only snaps the Buccaneers home record overall, but it breaks their 10-year dominance of winning against the Eagles at home. The last time East Perth were victorious in Geraldton was 2014. While the home streak is over, coach Dayle Joseph said that keeping it alive wasn’t on the minds of the Buccs when they play at Activewest Stadium. “It’s disappointing and I guess it’s a bit of a relief, but not that it worries us anyway,” he said. “We’re a competitive bunch of guys that want to win wherever we are and at home particularly.” The game got away from Geraldton in the fourth quarter, and while the side has had some big home comebacks already this season, they could not get it done on Saturday. Joseph said they were forced to play out of their style and that was what they would work on going into next week. “Execution was a bit of an issue, just under the pressure, and we just need to find a way to absorb that and get into our stuff, not let teams dictate to us,” he said. “We want to be in control of the offensive and I think they took that away from us.” Nik DeSantis led the team in scoring again with 23 points, to go along with five rebounds and four assists, Liam Hunt had 18 points and 16 rebounds while Josh Keyes filled the stat sheets with 18 points, eight rebounds, two assists, three steals and two blocks. The Buccaneers have dominated individually this season, with Hunt sitting sixth in the league for rebounds per game averaging 10.5. Import DeSantis sits at equal fourth in the league for assists per game with 5.88 while Keyes is sixth in the league for steals per game with two. Now Geraldton will look to start a new streak as they are back home on the weekend, when they host the Willetton Tigers on Saturday, May 18.