Recap
Newcastle U18s loose away to team Birmingham Elite
The game started with the Eagles setting the pace and quickly taking the lead on the back of point guard Ncube making short work of their point guards. However, 4 minutes of play, it was clear that the eagles had their work cut out for them as, the home team kept the game close matching the Eagles score for score. With 3 minutes remaining in the 1st quarter the eagle’s made a couple of defensive stops against Birmingham forcing them to shoot despite their clear size advantage. 1st quarter ended with a score 14-18 in favour of the Eagles.
The second quarter saw almost complete change in the home team’s defensive intensity as the came out and forced the eagles to commit 3 quick turnovers. The home team went on a 8-0 run which forced eagles coach George to call a time out. The eagles came out of that time out and went on a 6-0 run of their own to stay within striking distance of the Birmingham. With under 20 seconds to go in the half, Eagles Ncube steals the ball and shoots from about 50 feet away from the basket with the buzzer sounding as he scored the emphatic 3 to end the first half score 35-32.
The first half scoring was dominated by Evbuomwan, Riley and Spoors for the Eagles.In third quarter the home team began to go to use their overall size advantage to dominate the glass both offensively and defensively as the Eagles struggled with helping on their big men. The 3rd quarter ended 61-50.
The fourth saw the Eagles try to start the come back on several occasion, but with 2 quick fouls in the 4th by Evbuomwan and with Riley having 3 of his own saw a drop in the defensive intensity on the eagles side. Game ended with a final score of 79-67
U18s Head Coach, Calvin George said: “we definitely struggled to score in the 4th and we lacked overall leadership on the floor, we had a few moments in the game where we could have shifted the momentum but with this young team we lacked that maturity down the stretch”
