Recap

Newcastle Eagles 100 v City of Leeds Gold 30

Head Coach – Dominic Taylor

Starting 5 – Luke Tucker, Billy Crawshaw, Alfie Rhodes, Leo Glaholm, Arran Dower

This week the Newcastle Eagles welcomed City of Leeds Gold to the Vertu Motors Arena.

The game got out to a quick start with the Eagles winning the tip sending Bill Crawshaw straight to the basket to open the scoring.  A quick 3 point shot followed and from this point the Eagles never looked back.  This strong starting 5 held firm at the defensive end.  Another 3 point shot from Luke Tucker opened the Eagles lead even further.  Leo Glaholm was next on the scoreboard and the Eagles were flying.  Billy Crawshaw added another to his tally and once again the Eagles stood strong on defence denying Leeds basket after basket.  Arran Dower got his name on the scoresheet next forcing Leeds to call a time out.  A quick line up change saw Lewis Pinnock, Harry Merrifield and Tyler Cadete joined Luke Tucker and Billy Crawshaw on the court and both teams came back out to the floor full of fight and Leeds made it to the basket.  Despite the change in line up Leeds could still not find their way through the Eagles defence.  A referee time out had to be called due to Billy Crawshaw, unfortunately, badly dislocating his little finger.  With Billy sent off to the hospital play resumed with just a few minutes to play.  Lewis Pinnock did not waste time and headed straight to the basket to land the last points of the quarter which ended 25-7 in favour of your Eagles.

Quarter 2 saw Django Reay make his debut with the Academy Team.  Tyler Cadet found himself on the free throw line to get his name on the score sheet.  Leonardo Wilson added 2 of his own.  Leeds were next to find themselves on the free throw line but were unable to take advantage.  Django landed his first academy basket much to the delight of his team mates on the bench.  Another Leeds foul saw Joseph Flint on the free throw line adding 2 points for the Eagles.  Leeds strayed into foul trouble and called a quick time out. Leeds went on a little run adding back to back baskets to their score sheet but Leo Glaholm put a stop to their run with his second basket of the game. Luke Tucker stepped back on court and into Billy’s captain shoes and after inbounding the ball at the Leeds end sprinted back down to the Eagles end for another 3 point shot.  In a quarter dominated by fouls Leeds were next on the free throw line and they took full advantage.  Leo Glaholm answered this however with a basket of his own.  An assist from Luke Tucker saw Arran Dower add 2 more points to the tally quickly followed by a basket from Ashani Branker, his first of the game.  Again the Eagles found themselves on the free throw line with Joseph Flint doing the honours and adding 1 point to his tally.  A 2 point shot from Lewis Pinnock followed and again the Eagles defence stood strong denying Leeds time and time again.  Harry Merrifield landed his first basket of the game and the quarter ended 46-16

The second half scoring was opened by Arran Dower, quickly followed by Harry Merrifield with an And 1 basket.  Fouls saw Harry Merrifield step up to the free throw line for 2 more points.  A long pass down court saw Luke Tucker add 2 more and the Eagles defence held Leeds to for a shot clock violation.  Another 3 point shot from Luke Tucker stretched the Eagles lead even further.  A big block from Leo Glaholm denied Leeds under their basket and sending the ball back down court when Arran Dower took advantage adding another 2 point to the score sheet.  A fast break down court saw Leo Glaholm add 2 more.  Harry Merrifield was on the free throw line once again for another Eagles point.  The Eagles called a quick time out.  After the restart it was Leeds turn to shoot from the free throw line taking advantage of the 2 shots.  They quickly followed this with another 2 point shot.  The Eagles defence rallied and got back to their scoring ways with Leonardo adding another to his game total and Tyler Cadete finding himself on the free throw line once again.  It was once again Leeds turn to step up to the  free throw line to add more pints to their score sheet, however Tyler Cadete answered this with a basket of his own and the quarter ended 73-22

The final quarter saw Leeds get the scoring underway, their basket, however was answered by a 3 point shot from Alfie Rhodes, his first points of the game and Harry Merrifield quickly added 2 points of his own.  Leo Glaholm joined the points party happening at the Eagles end.  Mean while at the other end of the court Luke Tucker and Arran Dower were having a defensive party of their own keeping the Leeds baskets at bay.  A  long pass down court from Harry Merrifield saw Luke Tucker add another basket to his tally and a time out was called.  The Eagles strayed into foul trouble when the game restarted.  Joseph Flint fought his way through 3 defenders to add another basket to the Eagles total.  Despite their large lead the Eagles kept pushing and the baskets kept flowing from Tyler Cadete and Django Reay. Leeds did find their rhythm and landed a small run of baskets but once again Django stopped their run with an And 1 basket and the games ended 100-30.

Next week the Eagles will travel to Leicester to face the Leicester Riders.