The Newcastle Eagles were just in Bulgaria on Wednesday night and now just 48 hours later they return home to the Vertu Arena to take on a tough Leicester Riders side in a vital SLB Championship encounter.

Newcastle lost that game on Wednesday in the ENBL group stage to Spartak Pleven by the close margin of 95-91 but the final scoreline only tells half the story. In the first period Pleven scored the first 21 points of the game.

It led to an incredible 38-7 lead for the home side after a first torrid ten minutes for Head Coach Marc Steutel’s side. However, the Eagles rallied and by the end of the 40 minutes almost produced an astonishing comeback as Steutel recollected.

“The first quarter was disappointing for many reasons. We couldn’t manage the flow of the game. But exceptionally proud of the guys over the next thirty minutes. For those thirty minutes we shown the team that we are and continued to fight and play our way.”

Confirming his thoughts, Eagles won all the remaining quarters convincingly by a combined 84-57 points. But it was too little too late as they paid the price of that costly slow start. Steutel giving further reflection on the game.

“In a super physical game from both teams the fact that we were at the free-throw line 23 times and they were at the line 45 times is just staggering to me, absolutely staggering.”

“To have four players foul out when both teams are being physical is again staggering to me. It’s disappointing because I thought for 30 minutes we played a really solid basketball game.”

“We have to look at the start and not let games get to that position. I thought our tempo our pace and the shots that we took were the right shots on the whole. Now we have a long travel day back and then have to get ready for Leicester.”

That defeat by Pleven stopped a run of three domestic wins for Newcastle and meant they are still to win in the ENBL this campaign and struggling to make the post season qualification in Europe. But they have to put that behind them and move on.

“We understand the importance of our next game where Leicester are in the league table and where we are.”

One new weapon Eagles will have at their disposal will be new USA point guard Terrell Burden who only flew into Newcastle last Saturday to join up with his teammates. Burden had an encouraging debut against Spartak.

A top-scoring Eagles effort of 19 points six rebounds and six assists in just under 23 minutes played certainly gives Steutel cause for optimism and was without doubt the biggest positive to take from Wednesday night.

“It was good to get Terrell on the floor and get him acclimated with the group. Hopefully, the group can continue to build and get an important home win on Friday night against a very, very talented offensive team.”

Tip-off in the Vertu Arena on Friday night is at the usual time of 7:30pm for a crucial clash between two of the deadliest rivals in top-flight British basketball.