Recap
The Eagles went into the game in a strange environment having to play at Benfield while their usual court is under review from BE….
The home team playing in black started very slowly against the boys in white who were very guard heavy and seem to want to play at a million mile an hour which the home team struggled with in the first quarter as they dropped it 12-22… The second period saw the home team make the necessary adjustments and push the visitors around a bit more with some good offensive execution and much better defence they took the quarter 29-19 making it 41-41 at the half time… The Eagles were lead in that 2nd period by Alex Horta and Ben Hogg…
The 3rd period was another tight affair with the home team matching the visitors till the midpoint when the boys in white took a 0-9 run making it 50-54 before the Eagles hit a perimeter bomb from Alex Williams to slow the North West team down… This lead to the Eagles making a run of their own and the closed out the 3rd with a 60-57 lead… (19-16)
The 4th quarter saw the visitors jump out to a 0-8 run taking them up by 60-65 and the Eagles had to respond and they did just that and by the 8th minute it was 73-75 and an exciting 2 minutes lay ahead… The visitors always seemed to have the slight advantage and with seconds left on the clock they were up 79-81…. The Eagles called time out and advanced the ball, unfortunately a poor inbound saw the visitors steal and make a free throw from the resulting foul…. Saw the home team down 79-82, drew up another play and managed to get a shot off which rimmed out giving the travelling Tameside the win and 2 points….
Coach Heath said “Again we failed to play for 40 minutes, this time it was a poor first quarter with the guys just not ready to compete…. They turned things around in the 2nd and played a decent 20 minutes in the 2nd half…. We just couldn’t find away to defend their top scorer Pearson who had 30 mostly from his athletic drives and the bonus line…. We gave ourselves the last shot to get out of jail but the ball just wouldn’t drop…. We will regroup ready for a must win trip to York so as we can put a skid on the losing streak….”
Eagles Top Scorers- Alex Horta 15, Ben Hogg 13 and Alex Williams 10….
