Newcastle Eagles made it four successive SLB Championship wins in the Vertu Arena on Friday night. Their 104-80 victory being the latest in a string of fine team performances which have seen them taste victory by double-digit margins on all four occasions.

Head Coach Marc Steutel’s team have really gelled over the last few weeks and are now playing their best basketball of the season. A real commitment to aggressive disruptive defence has seen them getting the stops at one end to enable them to open up the other with free-flowing offence.

Sometimes statistics can be manipulated. Sometimes people say statistics lie and mask the facts. But the statistics this Eagles side is putting up at the moment really do tell the right story. Of the seven players that took to the court, six managed double-digit scoring in an all-round team effort.

The only one that did not, Terrell Burden, was just coming back from injury and played restricted minutes to ease him back into the rotation. He still managed seven points un that limited time. Once again Newcastle were led by their two top scorers, Maceo Jack and Ray’Sean Taylor.

Both had 21 points. Taylor adding six rebounds, six assists and three steals whilst Jack pulled down seven rebounds. But despite both having great games, neither was awarded game MVP. That honour went to Aussie guard Mitch Clarke with 19 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals.

But as much as the points scoring was important it was Clarke that was very much the defensive catalyst and leader with an incredible on-court rating of +36 in just over 24 and a half minutes played. Another SLB career high for the hardnosed likable Australian.

Nods of appreciation also need to go to captain Cole Long for 13 points, Gus Okafor with 12 points and 8 rebounds and Deion Hammond with 11 points who all played significant supporting roles in this latest Eagles win.

Burden’s return to the roster meant that Newcastle had an 8-man rotation that Steutel could run. In the end he did not need to use Manny Kanwei as the other magnificent seven shot the Gladiators down.

The teams entered the Arena only separated by one place but whilst Newcastle had nine wins the Gladiators have only managed four so far this season. However, in between Christmas and New Year Caledonia did arrive in Newcastle in style and left with an 87-79 win.

Early on in the game they looked in the mood to repeat that as they took an 8-5 lead. But it was a short-lived hope of a second successive victory on the road in Newcastle as the Eagles switched on and produced a 19-4 tear that took them into a lead they never relinquished thereafter.

Jack, Taylor, and Long influential in that run but in truth all playing their part. The last five points of the first quarter also went the way of Newcastle to give them a healthy looking 31-17 lead after the opening ten minutes.

The second was more of the same although Gladiators did briefly flicker the Eagles long-range bombers kept dropping three-point baskets in the Caledonia met to move further in front. From 34-25 up a 15-5 run opened the game up and gave Caledonia a mountain to climb.

Taylor hitting the final triple of a dominating twenty-minute half to take his side to the locker rooms ahead by a huge 62-39 margin. The third though showed that in basketball nothing can be taken for granted.

Caledonia opened the second half with a 9-2 run that caused Steutel enough concern to call a time-out. Clarke had also picked up a fourth foul in the third period that meant he had to be benched to save him from fouling out.

Caledonia managed to cut the lead down to as little as eleven but two Okafor triples late on in the quarter halted the Gladiators march. It meant Newcastle went in to the final period with a cushion of a 15-point lead.

Once again, the visitor briefly threatened but Clark returned to the fore and set the tome once again from where his teammates flourished. With the score at 77-66 he inspired another decisive run of 11-2 to help the men in black to go back up by points and fell the Gladiators for the last time.

Okafor’s late free-throw actually giving Newcastle their biggest lead of the night as the final buzzer sounded almost immediately afterwards. So, another excellent team effort from the players that took the court and those that supported them from the bench.

There appears to be a togetherness and joy from this group of players at the moment and that’s something they are going to need for their next assignment. That comes quickly on Sunday against the League leaders London Lions in the Copper Box, London.

A tough place to go against a very tough side that have already beaten the Eagles five times in five attempts across three different competitions. But that was a Newcastle side that had not won four games in a row and one that did not have the confidence and belief that they do right now.