Marc Steutel wants his wildly inconsistent Newcastle Eagles to start better more often in order to fulfil their huge potential.

It was a classic case of after the Lord Mayor’s show as the 2025 Trophy winners struggled to get out of second gear against locked in league leaders London Lions.

And after the visitors headed home with a deserved 91-80 win, an exasperated Steutel challenged his talented roster to raise their game.

“I’m frustrated with my group and I guess that performance reflected the ups and downs of our season,” said Newcastle’s paycaller.

“As a team we’re a bit beat up and there’s some sickness in the camp but that happens to every team. It’s not an excuse and it can’t mean we start games that way.

“We put ourselves in a hole and found a way to come back but even when we did come back I didn’t feel as if we were playing our brand of basketball.

“You can’t give a team 17 points off turnovers and 20 second chance points and expect to win.”

A lacklustre start against the hungry Lions was in complete contrast to the previous weekend’s lightning opening against Bristol.

Trophy final heroes Mike Okauru and Seneca Knight were shut down by a stifling London defence.

And the workmanlike visitors went about their business with energy and efficiency on their way to avenging a 74-67 loss on Tyneside two weeks earlier.

Only laser-focused guard Christian James emerged with any real credit as he carried his team-mates off the bench.

And the US guard deservedly emerged as Newcastle’s MVP after adding five rebounds and three assists to his game high 32 points.

“I want Christian to have a game like that when we win,” added Steutel. “He carried us in terms of scoring but he’s actually a very unselfish player.

“He likes to move the ball and he likes to get his team-mates involved.

“I’m happy for him but we’ve got to see that type of display when we’re winning.”

With Sunday’s trip to Manchester in his sights, Steutel has little time to reflect on a tough loss against the Lions but he added: “All of us need to take responsibility for that one.

“I’ve heard people say that performance levels can dip after the high of winning a trophy and I spent time talking about that with the guys last week.

“I challenged them to prove that theory wrong and we had a really productive week of practice which meant we went into the Lions game full of confidence.

“But we weren’t anywhere near where we needed to be against London — we were too reactive, a step too slow and we weren’t rotating.”

The hosts left themselves a mountain to climb after proudly displaying the club’s 28th piece of silverware prior to tip-off.

London leapt into a 25-19 first quarter lead before James’ 18th point of the game tied things up at 37-37 midway through the second period.

That should have provided a platform for the hosts to take control but Lions led by seven again at the half and never let up.

Petar Božić’s men extended their lead to 15 points with six minutes 25 seconds to play and, despite both Tyler Peterson and Ade Adebayo fouling out down the stretch, the visitors closed out an impressive win.

Okauru (14), Knight (10) and Jordan Spencer (10) all sought to support James after the break but it was too little, too late on a night when too many Eagles stars were a step off the pace.

Newcastle, missing Josh Ward-Hibbert,  were outrebounded 36-24 and missed eight free throws as little went the way of the men in black — including a series of tough calls on Trey Pulliam which led to the point guard fouling out four minutes from time.

Sunday’s game on the road at Manchester can be watched live on DAZN with tip-off at 3pm.