Recap
The Eagles were coming into this game off the back of 4 losses while the visitors were in the bottom 4 of the league… Both teams are an extension of their great junior programs….
The Eagles took to the court in front of a good crowd playing in their black kits and it was the home team who scored first as Yabantu scored off the tip…The rest of the period saw both teams score mini runs but the Eagles were the more consistent scorers as they closed out the first 10 minutes at 23-15 with some good perimeter shooting from Alex Horta….
The second quarter saw the boys in black get out to a great start and with Ben Hogg hitting 8 points personally from a 10-2 run taking it to 33-17… The visitors in white then called time out and came out firing as they then went on a 0-9 run of their own as the Eagles hit a scoring drought… The game went into the last 3 minutes of the half at 33-26… Coach Heath called his time out and it had similar effect to the Myerscough one as the boys in black went on a 13-2 run to close out the period at 46-28…. (23-13) Ilja Fjordorovs hit the final 5 points of the half….
The 3rd period got underway with both teams trading an early score making it 48-30… The visitors then went on a 0-8 run as the Eagles got sloppy on defence and caused themselves to foul too much… (48-38) The Eagles steadied the ship and over the next 4 minutes they went on a 7-4 run making it 55-42… The remainder of the quarter saw both teams trading scores and the period came to a close at 65-52… (19-24)
The fourth quarter was a strange one as it lasted only 35 seconds when Eagles player Dan parking jumped for a rebound as he landed his knee dislocated and this brought the game to a halt while an ambulance was called… The game was eventually abandoned by the officials… The decision was to play the remainder in Myerscough in March before the reverse fixture…. This was then conceded by the visitors and thus the score of the game will stand as 65-52….
Eagles U23 Head Coach said “It’s been a strange game and obviously our first thoughts were for injured player Dan Parkin… The Eagles played some solid basketball for the majority of the 3 periods… Any wobbles we had we came through and pushed on… We will now look forward to hopefully getting a winning streak going…”
Eagles Top Scorers- Ben Hogg 17, Alex Horta 12 and Themba Yabantu 12…
Eagles U23 next play at home to Manchester Magic on Saturday 16th December 2017…
