Leicester given a rough ride in Newcastle

BBL Championship Friday 9th March 2012
Newcastle Eagles 99 Leicester Riders 82

Last week’s rare home defeat to Plymouth Raiders seems like a distant memory already as Newcastle Eagles dominated their nearest rivals for the BBL Championship at Sport Central. The Eagles appear to have the Indian sign over the Leicester side as they led from the second minute to the finish and were rarely troubled by the much vaunted Riders line-up.

The Eagles spark plug Paul Gause was in particularly electric form leading all scorers with 28 points and looking a lock for the BBL Team of the Week. Speaking after the game, Paul said, “It was a good win and great to get that losing taste out of your mouth against a good team.” Following the previous Eagles defeat at home to Worcester Wolves the embarked on a long winning streak something that Paul hopes his team will repeat. “Of course, sometimes you lose but it’s the best thing for your team and I felt we learned from our last loss on the defensive end especially.”

On the Eagles undefeated run against Riders, “We just try to play good team defence. If everybody follows the game plan we’ll be all right and we did that tonight.” Paul seems to enjoy playing against Riders and his opposite number Cam Rundles but he was typically modest when talking about his performance, “I just give credit to my team mates and coaching staff getting better and they’re helping me to get better. It makes thing easier on the floor.” No-one is thinking about next week’s repeat fixture yet or how the result of tonight’s game will affect that one, “We’ve just got to worry about Durham tomorrow and whatever happens will take care of itself. I’m not looking past them and I’m sure the other guys aren’t either. We’ll worry about Leicester after the Durham game.”

Big games too from Mr Consistency Andy Thomson who had yet another double double with 16 points and 12 boards and Charles Smith with 21 points. Ayron Hardy fell two assists short of a third straight triple double with 12 pints, 13 rebounds and 8 assists. Bradd Wierzbicki top scored for the visitors with 25 points.

Cameron Rundles hit the game’s first basket but that was the high spot on a night to forget for Riders. Eagles ended the first quarter 23-13 to the good with Paul Gause making an immediate impact off the bench. Baskets were traded for most of the quarter before the Eagles ended the half on an exhilarating nine point run ignited by six points from that man Gause to lead 46-29 at the break.

Rob Paternostro’s half time talk clearly invigorated the Leicester boys and they duly slashed the lead to a mere eight points midway through the quarter despite big man Brett Royster being helped off court with what appeared to be a nasty ankle injury. Two threes from Charles Smith swung the momentum right back in the Eagles favour as the lead grew to 24 points at the end of the period at 81-57.

With the contest as good as over, things turned ugly early in the final period as a comment from a spectator caused Riders’ veteran Yorick Williams to leave the bench and confront a section of the home crowd. Some level of physical contact appeared to take place and the Leicester bench were charged with a technical foul as security had to restrain some very irate bodies.

The game continued with a security cordon behind the visiting bench and the Eagles lead peaked at 91-61 with 7.24 remaining thanks to an Andy Thomson basket. After all the excitement, the game was essentially a formality as Eagles took their feet of the gas but the villain of the day Yorick re-entering the court with 3.57 to go in the game ignited a crescendo of boos from the home fans. Fab Flournoy ran the bench in the final 2 minutes with none of his starters finishing the game as Riders chipped away at the lead to make the final score a more respectable 99-82.

On a side note, in many years of watching professional basketball I can’t recall ever seeing as many travel calls. I assume it must be a new FIBA initiative as it seems to be a theme recently? If they called them like this in the NBA no-one would ever score. Throw in a few technicals and the Yorick incident and we had a very a rather eventful game at Sport Central!

Newcastle Eagles have now extended their remarkable home winning streak against Riders to 26 games, dating back to 1997 and are unbeaten in all three matchups between the teams this season so far.

It’s a short trip down the A1 to Newton Aycliffe tomorrow for the final North East derby match of the season as Newcastle Eagles take on the Durham Wildcats. We’re back at Sport Central next Friday 16th March as the Eagles and Riders meet again. If it’s half as entertaining as this one you won’t want to miss it!