Déjà vu in Week Two
BBL Trophy Group 1: Newcastle Eagles 92 Durham Wildcats 72
Following an encouraging opening night in Newton Aycliffe last Saturday, the Durham Wildcats made the short journey up the A1 to Newcastle to take on the Eagles at Sport Central on Friday evening. The home side were buoyed by a pair of twenty two point victories over the visitors and Glasgow Rocks.
Bolstered by newly eligible import, Mario Flaherty, the visitors led several times in an evenly contested opening quarter. Ralph Bucci was once again the catalyst for the Wildcats with the Durham club looking a much less threatening prospect whenever the veteran was on the sideline.
As Durham performed above expectations, the home side by contrast laboured in a confidence bordering on complacency. Prior to the game Fab Flournoy had highlighted his concern at the tight scoreline at the half in the previous encounter, “At half time last week it was a six or eight point basketball game. I wasn’t happy with that to be honest.” Ominously, the Eagles led by just 21-19 at the end of the quarter and finished the half with a six point cushion at 42-36. Oh to have been a fly on the wall of the home dressing room at half time.
On cue the Eagles woke from their slumber in the third quarter with the home crowd on their feet following an exhibition of three-point shooting from the deceptively languid Charles Smith. It was a case of déjà vu for those of us present at both of the early season derby games as the third quarter proved the decisive period yet again, Newcastle stretching their lead to a healthy fourteen points.
Eagles’ fringe players Joel Madourie and Lamar Morrison gained valuable court time in the fourth quarter as Newcastle refused to allow the Wildcats to claw their way back in to the game. The Eagles’ starting five all made valuable contributions on the night with Darius Defoe shining with a double double of eleven points and ten rebounds and new partner Andrew Thomson bagging fourteen points and nine rebounds, despite picking up a fifth personal foul on a bizarre offensive foul call in the fourth quarter. I’d love to hear that one explained.
The effervescent Paul Gause looks a handful at this level and is visibly growing into his role in Newcastle. I can see him becoming a big crowd favourite this year. His steal and flamboyant dunk had the whole arena in raptures. Charles Smith led the scorers with 23 points, followed by Joe Chapman on 19. Mike Capocci led the way for Durham with an even 20 points.
The victory won’t have changed Flournoy’s outlook. The Eagles squad had better stock up on popcorn this week as the perfectionist coach will already have booked the room for another long video session. His words of earlier in the evening will be echoing around the corridors of Sport Central, “One of the things I’m trying to focus on is not where we’re at now but where we want to be in December or January. If you see me on the sidelines going mental at Dave (Forrester), going mental with the guys it’s not the point of the winning or losing a basketball game. It’s making sure it’s done in the right way.”
Big wins may be send the fans home happy but Flournoy knows it will be the crunch games further down the line that will re-stock the Eagles’ trophy cabinet.
