Recap
The Eagles started their home program with a tough encounter against a well drilled Sabres team… The Eagles in black jumped out an 18-8 lead in the first quarter mid point… The Sabres playing in yellow then had the better share of the last part of the period after a coach time out as they tied up the game at 20-20 with only 30 seconds left on the clock… The Eagles though hit an and 1 layup with Tom Usher driving the hoop to edge the first 23-20….
The 2nd period saw the home team take advantage of some good mini runs to lead by 5 points for the majority of the quarter and again Usher took the last shot of 10 minutes to take the Eagles into the locker room at 43-36… (20-16)
The boys in black controlled the early part of the 3rd as they were still up 55 to 49 by the 5th minute… The home team were spreading their scoring well, the Sabres though then hit a rich scoring run as they went on a 0-12 run prompting Coach Heath to call a time out… This had the desired effect as the Eagles finished the quarter strong edging ahead 69-68…. (26-32)
The final period was set up to be a humdinger, both teams’ traded early baskets and by the 2nd minute it was 72-70, Themba Yabantu then went on his own 4-0 run and along with scores from Alex Horta the Eagles went up 83-72…. The next 2 minutes saw both teams score baskets to make it 89-76 by the 8th minute… The home team then crumbled under some pressure defence and some poor game management and control of the basketball allowed a run of 2-10 made the final score 91-88… (22-20)
Coach Heath said “We were in control of the game at least twice and should have the mental strength to push on… However poor decisions on offence and game recognition allowed the Sabres back into the game and gave them the last shot which could have forced overtime…. We will work hard in training to negate these mental lapses and push onto our next game….”
Eagles Top Scorers- Alex Horta 18, Ben Hogg 17, Themba Yabantu 13…
