Recap
Newcastle U18s win on the road in Liverpool
Very important game for the eagles as this was a rematch the first game of the season and the second game of the double header. Were slow of the mark while playing a bit of zone but didn’t affect the ball in the half court as Liverpool were always looking to attack the middle and the low post. On offence we showed flashes of good ball movement but secondary movement from the players itself was an area that the eagles struggled with. The eagles attacked Liverpool’s 2-3 zone very well which forced them into changing that into a 3-2 to stop our Eagles shooters. First quarter ended 19-23 in favour of the visitors.
The end of the 1st quarter saw Eagles pressure the ball forcing Liverpool to turn it over a few times. Start of the 2nd the Eagles made a more active adjustment in their defence resulting in Liverpool not taking a single shot from beyond the arc. In fact Liverpool only shot 5 three pointers for the rest of the game. However, this doesn’t reflect in the half time score 35-39 as the Liverpool team capitalised on the defensive holes within eagles half court.
The first half scoring was dominated by Evboumwan, Linsley and Ridley. In the halftime huddle Eagles coaches stressed intensity of on ball defence and find gaps in the offence were areas of the conversation between players and coaches. The team also reviewed their shot chart and talked about the deflections and turnovers.
Going into the third saw the Eagles turn up the defensive pressure behind all defensive star Spoors, adding a layer on ball pressure to widen the gap and take the lead. They Eagles capitalised the increased tempo forcing Liverpool to play faster than what they are used to as both turned over the ball multiple times. However Eagles thrived in the chaos and reverted to their aggressive ball movement and offence. This allowed the eagles to push their lead to 11 ending the quarter 53-64
In the 4th the Eagles widen the gap before finishing the game at 76-89. However the 4th wasn’t without incident as a few tempers flared on both teams leading t several trips to the line.
U18s Head Coach, Calvin George said: “Slow off the mark today but we made the right adjustments. Defensively we need to make some huge strides this week as I am not happy with our overall defence today. but we closed out the game with a win on the road what was a tough weekend of games.”
Eagles U18s take on Sheffield next week away.
