Celebration time in Newcastle
Newcastle Eagles 96 Plymouth Raiders 80
BBL Trophy Final Second Leg – Friday 23 March 2012
A week in which basketball was overtaken by Sunday’s events at Plymouth Pavilions finally ended at Sport Central last night with a game that lived up to all the hype. Enough has been said about the ‘Code of Conduct’ incident but it was a stunt that backfired on Plymouth Raiders as the Newcastle Eagles lifted the BBL Trophy for the third time in four years, roared on by a fever pitch Sport Central crowd.
Fab Flournoy’s defence of the Eagles travelling support and Joe Chapman’s plea for support gave us an atmosphere that will remain long in the memory for the 2700 in attendance.
A close first period, dominated by both defences saw the game locked at 18-18 and Flournoy’s men still trailing by the nine point deficit brought back from that long trip to Plymouth. The early stages of the second quarter had a similar feel and the tension was palpable in the home crowd before the Eagles began to pull away and ended the period on a huge 30-11 tear to go into the locker room at 55-41, thanks to five big threes from Smith, Chapman and Thomson.
An aggregate lead of five points but a long way to go and so it proved as the visitors tore into the Eagles lead and with little over two minutes to go in the third stanza had the score back to 63-61. Last year’s BBL MVP Jeremy Bell was a constant thorn in the Eagles side but even he couldn’t halt another Eagles surge that had the game entering the final quarter finely balanced at 71-63 and the Raiders with a single point advantage over the two legs.
The Sport Central crowd had been having fun all night but we had to send a few workmen onto the roof in that final period just to make sure it didn’t fly off into the balmy Newcastle night. It was a time of celebration, relief and dare I say it karma from the basketball Gods as Newcastle Eagles sealed the win with a dominant final quarter. The home side thrived on the waves of supported that crashed down on the Sport Central court. Dave Forrester danced down the sideline orchestrating the crowd and the Raiders had no answer to any of it. It all ended with a seven point aggregate win but the score didn’t matter. They did it. Oh boy, did they do it!
On a night like this heroes are made, and it would be difficult to single out any individual player in the Eagles team but a special mention must go out for Fab Flournoy who left nothing on the court. He was emotionally and physically drained and it was clear how much this victory meant to him. Frequently stung by the lack of credit given to his team this year and determined to win this one for the fans much as the team, his super human efforts made a mockery of anything you’ll see on the stat sheet. Fabulous.
I spoke to another real hero after the game, Joe Chapman. Joe was buzzing from the win but insisted the Eagles fans take credit for their part in the Trophy success, “I enjoyed the atmosphere. A great venue, great crowd. They really got behind us especially in the fourth quarter and we showed what we’re all about. They had a 90% free throw shooter in Ojo and he missed two out of three thanks to our great crowd support. It was a real blessing that we had the second leg here at home.”
He was always confident in his side’s ability to turn the game around, “It was a two legged game and we had a veteran game who knew to look at it as just half time. It was only nine points, that’s 3 threes, We know what we can do and in that second quarter you saw that we made 5 threes and boom there you have it it’s over.”
He also had further great news for Eagles fans as he regards this second piece of silverware as just another chapter in what could be a storybook season for Newcastle Eagles, “It’s the second one and we’re trying to go for the clean sweep. We going to refocus and be back hard at work on Tuesday to prepare for Milton Keynes and get ready to roll!”
So that’s two down and the Championship within touching distance. What a season for the Newcastle Eagles. I know more than a few fans have ringing ears and sore throats but they’re wearing them as badges of honour but as Fab Flournoy said, “That is how we roll!”
One thing’s for sure, we don’t do matinees at Sport Central!
