The Newcastle Eagles men’s team failed to match their women’s team and fell to defeat in the Capital on Sunday evening. The women had defeated London 79-60 on Saturday night at home whilst being short-handed. The men too were short-handed on the road but couldn’t cover their absentees.
Eagles had to do without forward Gus Okafor who has made a favourable impression since arriving on Tyneside earlier this month. Okafor being instrumental in the 92-89 home victory over Surrey 89ers on Friday night. They also were without influential veteran forward and Captain Darius Defoe.
Our Eagles Men slip to 3-7 on the season (Photo and featured image: London Lions)
Two men down and an away game against the league leaders. Albeit a league-leading Lions that had their colours lowered for the first time this season down in Bristol by The Flyers. With Eagles winning at the same time against Surrey there was perhaps a chink of hope.
But ‘beware the wounded animal,’ as they say. London were in no mood to drop two games in a row and at the same time allow Eagles to build on any momentum their Friday night win might have given them. From the off Lions were roaring from deep.
Manny Kanwei opened the scoring in the game to give Eagles a two-point lead but Amin Adamu replied with a triple and then another as Lions went up early. Ray’Sean Taylor and Deion Hammond replied from beyond the arc for Newcastle and they sneaked back in front momentarily.
Our Eagles Men are next in action against Iraklis B.C in the ENBL with tickets available now (Photo: London Lions)
Lions though responded with five more triples in the quarter plus three from the line from Matthew Goodwin when he was fouled attempting another and suddenly in the blink of an eye the home side were the ones flying and not the Eagles. A 36-22 opening ten minutes.
It got slightly better for Newcastle in the second period until very late on in the half. They couldn’t make inroads into Lions lead but held the ship steady until London poured in the last seven points of the quarter to take a commanding half-time advantage of 64-42.
For Eagles, the 42 scored was probably just about acceptable but the 64 conceded was certainly not as they failed, in particular, to guard the perimeter where Lions knocked down buckets for fun and opened up the inside for further gain.
Deion Hammond continues his hot form for Our Eagles Men (Photo: London Lions)
The second twenty minutes simply had to be better from Newcastle and was. They chipped away and chipped away with Maceo Jack and Cole Long joining Taylor and Hammond in being effective alongside Malcolm Smith who had returned to the Eagles roster.
Slowing down Lions on offence and transitioning well into their own they cut the gap down to 10 at one stage when Long tripled. It meant the Eagles led the third 9-21 but again Lions did not lie down and scored the last 7 points of the period to still lead by 17 going into the last quarter.
Eagles then threatened a dramatic comeback as the final period got underway. They scored ten straight to get back to within 7 points at 80-73 but Lions called a time-out steadied their ship and replied with 7 unanswered of their own to stem the flow and seal the win.
Newcastle battled gainfully and never gave up but they lost the battle of the boards all night and came up against a side that shot the ball particularly well all night including 12 of 22 from 3-point range. Eagles with a shorter rotation were also outscored heavily from the bench by 33-13.