Eagles rocking at Sport Central
Listening to Fab Flournoy’s pre-match speech to the club’s sponsors, it was evident that the pain of a first trophyless season in seven years has yet to recede. Delivered in his usual laid-back, congenial manner, the coach’s words filled the audience with confidence for the coming campaign. He was bullish when describing his three new signings.
Joel Madourie: “A player that I have been following for a number of years” adding “we’re integrating him into the team and hoping that he has a great basketball IQ to match his great basketball ability”.
Andrew Thomson: “Dave Forester and I had the chance to sign him two or three years ago and we should have. He’s a similar player to Lynard (Stewart)…we talked about him on coaches back from games so many times over the last year.” He’s clearly a player Fab is delighted to have on board.
Paul Gause: “An incredible athlete, the most impressive I’ve worked with in basketball. He can do things I didn’t think possible”. Comparing him favourably to departing fan’s favourite, Reggie Jackson, Fab added, “If you thought Reggie was quick, wait until you see this guy!”
He talked of his own and Joe Chapman’s fitness (they’ve both fully recovered) and how delighted he is with his squad for the season. Taking time to accept a Haribo sweet from a very young fan to the audience’s amusement, he had ominous words for the rest of the BBL as he has ‘some dates marked in my diary’ to write the wrongs of the injury plagued 2010-11 season. He’s set his new-look team a target of a clean sweep of four trophies this year, something that might seem unachievable but when you see the look of determination in his eye I’m feeling quietly confident that we’ll see at least a couple of pieces of glistening silverware in Bridgey’s hands this year.
All this leads us nicely into the Eagles pre-game introductions with the new boys all receiving an extra loud cheer from a healthy home crowd. It’s not just the excitement of the new season that has me reeling however. Bottle in hand, a rather worse for wear gentleman plonks himself down in the seat next to me. I remember a product called beer shampoo in my youth, well this guy smelled like he’d been using a full range of beer toiletries. Thankfully he quickly departed but he did reappear at various spots around the Arena in ‘Where’s Wally’ fashion throughout the game before being escorted from the venue following minor harassment of the Eagles coaches and Paul Blake’s intervention!
A strong start to the game for the Eagles saw them take an early 7-2 with Joe Chapman looking lively and contributing 5 points. The Rocks immediately pegged the score back to 9-8 Eagles following two quick baskets from new signing DeAundre Cranston. I was keen to see him in action, being an ex-Ole Miss player, and my word he’s a big unit.
A spate of offensive fouls called on the Eagles sparked unrest amongst the home faithful. The referees proving as popular as ever at Sport Central! A scrappy scoreless spell was followed by a 9-0 run from the Eagles to end the quarter at 23-12, the highlight being a big 3-point shot drained by the Charles Smith. He was certainly looking like he’d made the right decision to postpone his retirement.
A couple of early second quarter baskets reducing the deficit to 23-16 saw the Eagles call a time out followed by a nice steal by Fab releasing the livewire Gause who’s lay up bounced back off the rim to Bridgey who sank a nice 3-point shot. A charging foul on Darius Defoe had the crowd on their feet as the decision could just have easily gone the other way. The big man took his time getting up from the incident, looking as bemused as the rest of us at the call when he finally rose. The story of quarter was the Scottish side, inspired by EJ Harrison, chipping away at the Eagles lead reducing it to just two points at one stage, ending with the home side hanging on to a 37-32 lead at the half.
The Rocks started the second half on fire tying the game at 41-41, the first time they had been level since the first minute of the game. The small contingent of travelling Rocks support’s joy was shortlived as this shocked the Eagles into life with sold performances at both ends of the court seeing them pull away to a 52-44 lead at the end of the penultimate quarter, punctuated by a neat 2-point Bridge basket on the buzzer.
The Rocks essentially six man rotation ran out of steam in the final quarter and the outcome was never in doubt. The Eagles finishing the game 85-63 winners, a scoreline that exaggerated the difference between the two teams on the night but few present on the night could fail to notice the gulf in class.
Overall it was a typical early season game with errors on both sides but an impressive win for the home side nevertheless with the bulk of the points being shared by Chapman, Smith and Thomson, undoubtedly the star man on the night with a double double. Thomson was easily the more impressive of the two new starters, dominating inside the paint at both baskets and the best player on the court by some distance. That’s not to say Paul Gause had a poor game. Far from it. He powerful ball of energy covering every inch of the floor, he grew in stature as the game progressed. The talent was there for all to see and once he gets a handle on the Eagles playbook it’s only a matter of time before he explodes with a huge performance. Bring on Durham!
