On Thursday night the Newcastle Eagles will attempt to create a new top-flight women’s championship attendance record at the Vertu Arena when they take on Manchester Basketball in a game dubbed ‘The Big One!’
The Eagles franchise looking to have a crowd in excess of 1,500 for the first time as they play on the full show court in their latest SLBW Championship clash. Star guard Shanique Lucas is very much looking forward to the game as she gave her thoughts on the upcoming fixture.
Lucas started by reflecting on the team’s last game on March 20th when they defeated Leicester 76-72 also at home.
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“It was a good win overall. We played typically of us a good solid three quarters out of the four. Towards the end we let things slip but we were able to just stay in front take care of things on offence and Drea (Daley) had an unbelievable second half to lead us in scoring.”
“Overall, pretty good. We expected to win against Riders and yes, it could have been a bit smoother, but a win is a win.”
Lucas who is having a great season and is averaging 13.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and a league leading 3.1 steals per game is now fully fit after an injury kept her out for a game and restricted her minutes in others. She had 17 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists against Leicester.
“I’m feeling pretty good. I can speak on behalf of the team that if anyone is out injured or for any reason always feels really taken care of and welcomed back by the team so that’s never a problem.”
“In terms of my play that game I just wanted to take care of things on defence get rebounds and be active. Fortunately, I was able to turn that into some offensive production.”
Now Lucas has turned her attention to Thursday night and a tough game against beaten SLB Cup Finalists Manchester who are having a solid season.
“We’ve played them two times now. The first time we played them we were down by double digits at the half, but we were able to come back and win by double digits. That was a really good team win.”
“The second time we played them was another really, really good team win. We had multiple people in double digit figures. We were a little bit shorth-handed with Alyssa (Marin) and Alex (Campbell) out at the time.”
“Going into Thursday it’ll be really good for us to have lots of girls on the bench to come in and replace each other and produce on both offence and defence. Our practice has shown that we’re on the right track to do that in this game.”
Playing on the main show court in front of a big crowd has really got Lucas excited.
“I’m stoked and I think the whole team is. It’s cool to go to the men’s game and see the atmosphere, see the set-up of the stadium and to see it packed out. It’s a really cool opportunity for us to showcase our talents.”
“Not only our talents but the talents of women’s basketball players. Hopefully, it can be more commonplace to play on a bigger stage like this. I’m really looking forward to it and seeing all our great fans.”
Tip-off at the Vertu Arena on Thursday night is at 7:30pm when Lucas and her teammates look to take a crucial step forward in the race for a top four finish in the SLB Championship.
Tickets for The Big One 2026 are still available from the box office.
