Absolutely Fabulous display by Eagles

BBL Cup Final, NIA Birmingham: Sunday 15th January 2012

Newcastle Eagles: 115 (35,63,94) Smith: 39, Gause: 24, Bridge: 16
UCP Marjon Plymouth Raiders: 94 (20,46,74) Colbert: 25, Bell: 23, Rowe: 20

The BBL produced its first silver ware winners of the season on Sunday, in the form of The Newcastle Eagles. The league leaders held off the Plymouth Raiders in record breaking style 115-92, entertaining a packed National Indoor Arena live on Sky Sports.

A stand out performance from veteran forward Charles Smith proved he was still a force to be reckoned with as he finished the game on a mighty 39 personal. However a fantastic, strong team display from The Eagles ensured they maintained the Raiders from the get go.

With both sides looking good in practice, and Queens ‘We Will Rock You’ filling the arena, the fans were ready and the stage was set for a fantastic cup final. Both teams started well off the buzzer, with the Raiders first to find the basket  However it wasn’t long before the Eagles found their flow in the form of Mr Charles Smith, as he threw a huge 3 pointer from downtown to the delight of the crowd. With Smith’s strong field shooting so early on, the Eagles took a lead of 10-6 in a high speed start to the game.

Both sides continued to trade baskets until strong free throw shooting from Jeremy Bell and a super dunk from Lehmon Colbert gave the Raiders fans something to shout about, the score was level at 14-14. The first quarter began to look evenly matched, game on!

End to end action saw the majority of the points come from the free throw line for the Raiders through Bell and almost anywhere on the court from Smith for the Eagles. After a basket from Paul Gause on the buzzer, Newcastle went into the break up 35-20 with Smith on a huge 21 personal points. His high score so early on you could say was the difference in a high tempo opening period, he was clearly the man Plymouth needed to hold down on this cup final day.

The Eagles came out with a fast start to the 2nd quarter, yet it was the Raiders who found the net first through Colbert. In an immediate response from the Eagles, Smith saw back to back baskets stretching the lead again to 39-22. Frustration in the Raiders players began to show, as they started find themselves in foul trouble early on.

Another 1 from Smith at the free throw line saw his personal points increase to 26 with 8 minutes left to play of the half.  Whatever the defensive plan was regarding Smith, wasn’t working for the Raiders. Joe Chapman then capitalised on that, with a low drive to the basket, taking the lead to a twenty point ball game (44-24). However it seemed, this wasn’t the beginning of the end for the Raiders. With the vocal support of their fans and a moral boosting slam dunk from Colbert they enjoyed a fantastic 18-5 run to pull it back to a single digit deficit (49-40), time out Plymouth.

The Raiders appeared to be on top mentally, yet Newcastle came back on court and secured their lead through an array of points at the free-throw line from Gause, Bridge and player coach Fab Flournoy.  We had a 17 point ball game on our hands as the league leaders went into the locker rooms at half time up 63-46. An entertaining first period saw a huge display from Eagles forward Charles Smith who ended the half on 31 personal, of the 63 team points!  A stand out performance from a Raiders perspective came from Jeremy Bell with 17 personal – 100% from the free throw line (8 from 8).

The 3rd quarter started with the two teams trading baskets from end to end, however it went from bad to worse for Plymouth as former Sheffield Sharks centre Paul Williams, picked up his 4th foul and had to leave the court.  A technical foul for dissent meant game over for him. Chants from the Plymouth fans of ‘Cheat Cheat Cheat’ in response to the big guy’s dismissal only turned up the heat in what was already a fiery affair. Eagles were now up (79-60) with Smith seeing more net time as 2 from him took him into the record books, surpassing the BBL Cup Final scoring record set by Steve Dagostino in last year’s game.

Jeremy Bell continued to try and pull back points for the Raiders at the line with 3 from 3, however the Eagles were now firing on all cylinders. Chapman from downtown, as he netted for 3 and quick ball and body movement from playmaker Gause across the court, enabled Newcastle to extend the lead once again (90-65). The 3rd quarter ended on a twenty point ball game (94-74) as the two sides got ready for the final stanza.

Raiders opened the scoring once again in the 4th with an impressive alley-oop between Martin and Rowe, yet another 2 from Smith saw his total increase to 39 personal (a score that in-form Lakers’ guard Kobe Bryant would be proud of!).

Newcastle went from strength to strength with great link play between Bridge and Gause, and it was the point guard who took the Eagles into the record books once again with impressive ‘3 pointer’ as they passed the 103 mark. The highest score recorded in a BBL Cup Final.

The game ended with a fantastic win for the Newcastle Eagles (115-94) with the Cup Final MVP award going to high scoring Charles Smith. A solid and spectacular team display from high flying Eagles, who proved they remain the top flight team to beat in British Basketball.

Post Game Words with Fab Flournoy: Player/Coach of the Newcastle Eagles:

“Our game plan from the offset was to defend, defend, defend. We knew that they had great scorers in Jeremy Bell (the league’s MVP) and also Lehmon Colburt who is a dangerous, silent player, who plays well under the radar. Both ended the game as high scorers, so we were right!

No disrespect to the Raiders at all but they seemed to lose a level of composure over the game, and we were able to capitalize on that. We had the mental advantage which later turned into the physical too. That was the difference in the game, not so much tactically.

Charles also made a big difference for us today, he is a fantastic player and when we went to him he did what he needed to do. Other players also stepped up, Paul Gause and Joe Chapman, both with previous little game time. Charles played well throughout though, he was on another level, but as a team – Everybody played well.”

Karis Buckingham-Jones is the founder of www.girlssporttalk.com – follow them on twitter @girlssporttalk