Lions tamed in Newcastle
Newcastle Eagles kept up their 100% start to the BBL Championship season with a victory over MK Lions that was far closer than the score line suggests.
The Eagles welcomed back last season’s player of the year Charles Smith, returning from a troublesome hamstring injury that had kept him out of the last 3 games. Unfortunately, it was the only good news to come out of the Eagles camp with coach Fab Flournoy confirming pre-game rumours that point guard Paul Gause would miss the game with a calf injury sustained in Wednesday’s training session. Gause is due to see a specialist on Monday for a full diagnosis and an estimated return date. Fellow new boy Joel Madourie remained an absentee.
The Jekyll and Hyde Milton Keynes team took the court on the back of two wins over EBL side London Leopards and a couple of heavy defeats by Glasgow Rocks and local rivals Leicester Riders. They started brightly and for the most part kept pace with the Eagles throughout the first quarter, falling behind 18-11 to a Joe Chapman 2-point shot but recovering to finish up just 2 points adrift at 27-25 thanks to playmaker Demarius Bolds and forward Howard Crawford.
Joe Chapman stepped up in Gause’s absence with a devastating 15-point display of shooting in the second period including two outrageous 3-point efforts over the hapless 6-11 Adrien Sturt who had been given the unenviable task of guarding the rampant Chapman. The half ended with the Eagles leading 55-45 and the game seemingly heading for a predictable easy home victory. Mike New’s Lions had other ideas.
Three minutes 11 seconds into the second half saw the deficit reduced to just one point at 56-55 following Portuguese guard Nuno Pedroso’s basket. The Eagles ever reliable big man Andrew Thomson became increasingly frustrated with the offensive side of his game after a series of missed shots from the field. A much needed home time out allowed the Eagles to regroup and inspired by Flournoy they went on an unanswered 9-point run to stretch the lead yet again. The margin was still at ten points with 14 seconds to go in the period but the visitors refused to lie down with Pedroso nailing a 3-point shot before stealing the ball from Chapman to hit a buzzer beating basket ending the penultimate quarter at 74-69.
The final period was a microcosm of the entire game with the Eagles looking to run away with it yet always being pegged back by a spirited MK Lions team. By the time Bolds reduced the deficit to 91-88 with 2.07 to play with the Eagles in serious foul trouble a shock result was on the cards. A mixture of ill-discipline, Bolds fouling out on a double technical, and poor shooting from MK Lions allowed the Eagles to cruise home at 100-88. Veteran Charles Smith closing out the game with 4 successful free throws thanks to Bolds technicals.
Howard Crawford top scored with 25 for Milton Keynes and Joe Chapman hit 23, all in that frantic first half, for the Eagles. Charles Smith and Andrew Thomson hit 21 points each for the Eagles and the crowd were treated to big double doubles from Bolds and Daniel Northern for the visitors. Star man for me was Eagles player/coach Fab Flournoy who led by example with 14 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals, a real team performance.
So that’s a perfect 4-0 start to the League campaign for Newcastle Eagles. Next up are the only side to beat them so far this season, Glasgow Rocks, in the quarter final of the BBL Cup on Friday 11th November at Sport Central.
