Recap

U16 boys fall to road loss at namesakes York

There was only guarantee when both of these teams matched up, and that was an Eagles victory, but unfortunately for the U16 boys, it was York Eagles that got it done 66-58.

Having opened brightly with some good early work, Newcastle was on the wrong end of a strong scoring run by their hosts which left them 20-11 behind going into the second period.

It was then a much tighter affair with the teams more or less cancelling each other out ahead of half-time. York continued to favour their relentless quest to get the ball inside and the Eagles looked for a more balanced output.

Trailing 35-24 heading to the locker room, the visitors needed to turn up the offensive dial when the action resumed – and they did.

Sparked by a raising of their intensity at the defensive end, they scored almost as many points as they did in the entire first half and made it 47-46 to set up a nail-biting last 10 minutes.

But, despite the boys briefly taking the lead in the final quarter, it was York who finished most strongly to take victory.

“This was a big disappointment in terms of how we applied ourselves at both ends of the court, as well as the result itself,” said head coach Chloe Gaynor.

“York may not have the best record in the league, but the vast majority of their games are single digits and close. That means you have to be 100 percent locked in.

“We saw the need for that in the home game when we beat them, so it was inevitable that if we didn’t play as a team and be ready, we would get bitten this time.

“We allowed too many offensive boards, middle drives and played soft defence in the first half. Apart from showing up in the third quarter, we were just not team-orientated enough and it proved costly,” concluded Gaynor.