Newcastle Eagles went down to a disappointing 65 – 81 loss on Friday night in the Vertu Arena against Bristol Flyers. The Eagles were looking for a third consecutive Super League Basketball (SLB) win but in the end were unable to find the performance and standards that they needed.
Head Coach reflected on the circumstances of the game in his post-match review particularly the start of the game where Flyers jumped out early and then how his team responded.
“We weren’t at the races at the start which was disappointing. They made a couple of shots, and we tried to get possessions back with one pass or a quick shot we wouldn’t normally take and haven’t during this season,” said Steutel.
“Ten-zero down is not a positive start, and we had to try and find a way back and we strung some good minutes together to get it back to a four-point game at half-time. Bristol on the whole were tougher. Their defence was better.
“There are some parts of the game we have to review. We get to the free-throw line twelve times to their thirty. We’re playing seven guys and focused all week about defending without fouling and thought we did a good job of that, but the statistics would say otherwise,
“A lot of the 50/50 verticality situations seemed to end up with them at the line. But we weren’t good enough on the offensive end. We had ten extra possessions and shot low 30% whilst they shot close to 50%. Ultimately that was the difference.”
One of the other big differences was Aussie guard Mitch Clarke joining Cam Christon and Kyle Carey on the injured list and only able to watch from the side-lines. Meaning Steutel only had a seven-man roster.
“It hurt us not having Mitch, Kyle, and Cam. The ball moved better for them than in recent weeks and they had multiple contributions across the board,” the head coach continued.
“We’ve found a way to be really effective with Blondeau, Tavis and Mitch.
“But we struggled at times to generate the quality of looks that we usually do. We had some good looks, but the ball didn’t go in particularly in that first quarter which led to some of their fast breaks.
“Offensively we didn’t have that zip about us. That level of poise and clinical ness that we’ve shown previous. We’ve tried to do a job of playing hard for forty minutes. Not perfect of course but try to win and lose with humility and try to remember that.
Situations that developed towards the end of the game and Steutel is clear that his team need to remember and reflect upon, particularly with Bristol still to play twice more this season.
“It was a tough night and there was some adversity, but you have to look at yourselves and everyone has to be a bit more disciplined in what we do,” Steutel concluded.
“We’ve got to be better. Hopefully, we get healthier as we’ve got some tough games ahead.
“Our guys really competed and we exerted so much energy to get back in the game that maybe affected our execution down the stretch. Having a short rotation hurt us but I’ll take our guys going into battle any day.
“So, I don’t think it’s panic stations. We just have to look at the game together and review certain situations, learn from it, and look to get better moving forwards.”
The Eagles do have a little bit of a break as they are not in action again until next Sunday when they face a tough trip to Cheshire Phoenix.
