The day after Bonfire Night the Newcastle Eagles were not able to produce the fireworks on court to blow the Bristol Flyers away and take a third successive Super League Basketball (SLB) win. After a great weekend with two road wins at Leicester and Caledonia their home return was not what they were looking for.

The Eagles who had overcome adversity and difficult circumstances to get two excellent victories found the game against Bristol in the Vertu Arena a game too far for a beat-up battered and once again short-handed roster.

Still without Cam Christon and Kyle Carey they were dealt a further hammer blow when Aussie guard Mitch Clarke who has been in superb form this season was also ruled out through injury. It left Head Coach Marc Steutel having to effectively juggle a seven-man rotation.

That was always going to be a difficult task especially down the stretch when fatigue and foul trouble went very much against the Eagles. Bristol themselves were also short-handed but still had a nine-man rotation for Coach Kapoulas to juggle. It proved decisive in the end analysis.

The statistics of the game can often not tell the full story. But perhaps in the cold light of day this time they did as Newcastle trailed their visitor’s in quite a few of the key areas that eventually decided the game.

Eagles shot only 33% from the field compared to Flyers 46%. Inside the paint the Flyers scored 40 points to Newcastle’s 24 giving them a 55% to 42% advantage.

There was not a lot of difference in 3-point shooting with Eagles making 8 and Bristol 7 but Newcastle’s came off 34 attempts whilst Bristol shot only 22. Free-throws was a huge disparity in attendance at the charity stripe.

Bristol went to the line 30 times and despite only making 16 of those attempts the foul count was massively in their favour with Eagles only getting 12 chances from the free-throw line and making 9. Rebounding saw Bristol pull down 49 boards to Newcastle’s 41.

It all combined whichever way you look at and interpret it to a bad night at the office for Steutel and his players who never at any stage led in the game and were always playing catch-up after a poor start to the contest.

From the first tip Newcastle could not buy a bucket. Bristol getting out to a 10 – 0 lead forcing Steutel into a time-out with only two ticks over two minutes played. Even out of that tactical talk Flyers scored the next basket to make it 12 unanswered.

In fact, it was not until three and a half minutes had been played before Blondeau Tchoukuiegno put the Eagles on the board. The first quarter rhythm though had been set and with Bristol dominant they closed out the ten-minute period 28 – 12.

Travis Smith tripled at the start of the second period, but it look a temporary respite for Newcastle. Kasen Jennings, Michael Diggins and the Delpeche brothers Marcus and ex-Eagle Malcolm at first kept the pressure on and Bristol upped their lead to 18 points at 37 – 19.

That was when Newcastle launched their first comeback run. Started by a Smith deuce and ending with two Cole Long free-throws they produced an 18 – 2 burst over a five-minute period that saw them right back in the game at 37 – 39 down.

Bristol scored four points to halt that run but Adam Hamliton’s late bucket meant there was only four points in the game at 43 – 39 to the Flyers at the half after Eagles winning the quarter by 27 – 15 as the side’s headed to the locker rooms.

Coming out and getting the second half underway Smith tripled to bring Eagles back within a point. Bristol then responded with a 9 – 0 run to take their lead back into double-digits. But Long, Smith and Tchoukuiegno hit back-to-back-to-back triples, and the lead was back to a single digit again.

The game went back and forth with Flyers just about holding sway but with 3:22 left in the period Hamilton laid one home for Newcastle and it was 55 – 55. Zac Anderson replied and then Smith had the chance to bring Eagles level again from the free-throw line but only made one of two.

The Flyers then scored the last three points of the quarter to make it a level one at 17 – 17 and enable them to take a 60 – 56 lead into the final ten-minute stretch. Hamilton again netting for the Eagles to bring them back within two, but Bristol responded with five and Steutel called time-out.

The stoppage did not have the effect he was hoping for as Bristol also scored the next five out of it and were up by twelve. Smith stopped the run, but the Eagles were clearly tiring and not getting their offensive execution they wanted.

Bristol continuing their run were able in the end to close out the game in reasonable comfort. It gave Eagles some answers to find when they get around to analysing the game and where they could have and needed to be better moving forwards.

For Eagles Smith top scored with 21 points. Tchoukuiegno had 16 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists. But it was Hamilton who earned MVP honours on the night with a solid all-round game netting 12 points pulling down 11 rebounds and pinching 3 steals.