It was a weekend to forget for Newcastle Eagles WBBL’s after they were handed a quarter-final WBBL cup loss to a strong Sevenoaks Suns side at Sport Central.

While play caller Chris Bunten’s side managed to keep the score close, even leading at half time – they were ultimately unable to overcome a dominant third quarter from Sevenoaks.

Just a day prior, Newcastle were handed a brutal 82-60 loss away at the hands of Nottingham Wildcats in the WBBL Championship with Bunten’s side looking to rebound from their away day woes.

Heading into the contest, Sevenoaks remained unbeaten in the WBBL having previously beaten Bunten’s side in a beat down 73-40 loss just over a week earlier.

And Newcastle’s task of defeating one of the WBBL leading lights was made even tougher after Australian all-rounder Georgia Ohrdorf was ruled out with a concussion.

If the last contest between the two sides was a rather one sided affair, this contest was a more even one, with both sides trading early blows as they looked to gain the upper footing.

And when the first buzzer went at the end of Q1, Bunten’s side found themselves trailing narrowly 21-17.

But then, Newcastle showed off their resilience as they fought their way back into the contest in Q2 with Swiss international Giulia Simioni leading the charge – the score sitting at 40-38 in favour of the hosts at half time.

Despite their battling first half, the second half resembled the two sides contest from just over a week ago with the visitors keen to show off their championship pedigree.

Newcastle fought hard in the first half but an early run of points in Q3 pushed Sevenoaks far out in front, with the visitors outscoring Bunten’s side 21-5 to take a significant lead as the two sides entered the fourth quarter.

While skipper Simioni and Kara Bonenberger, who finished the contest with 11 and 17 points respectively, fought hard to get their side back into the contest, they were ultimately unable to thanks to their opponents strong third quarter with over four players registering double digit points for the visitors.

The fourth quarter saw Sevenoaks pull away, with the visitors running rampant in front of a packed Sport Central with Newcastle having no answer for Sevenoaks skipper Catherine Carr who top scored for Sevenoaks with 24 points.

And when the final buzzer went, Newcastle’s fighting first half performance was all for nought as they found themselves on the back of an 80-58 loss to one of the WBBL’s powerhouse sides.