Recap
Eagles were looking to avenge their home loss to Tameside earlier in the season… They arrived in good form against a much changed Tameside team who were playing in front of quite a partisan crowd….
The game started at a fast pace for the home team as they literally ran the boys in white off the floor and went up 16-7 inside 6 minutes… The last 4 minutes saw the teams trade scores and the period ended with the home team in black leading 25-16….
The second quarter saw the Eagles change tactics and personnel and this proved much better as they matched the team guard for guard and with some good pressure on the floor they chipped away at the lead and with seconds left they had two free throws to go in at the break up but missed both to end the half 32-31… (7-15)
The second half got underway with the Eagles picking up where they had left off with Ingham scoring 5 of the first 8 points from the visitors and by the 4th minute they lead 38-39… The remainder of the period saw teams trade hoops and if it wasn’t for some poor free throw shooting by the boys in white they would have pushed on… as it was the home team edged the quarter 17-13 making it 49-44….
The Eagles came out in the 4th feeling they could turn the 5 point deficit around… The early exchanges saw both teams score and by the 5th minute it was 57-48… The visitors then had 4 stops in a row but failed to capitalise on the offensive end and by the 7th minute the home side had extended their lead to 62-50… The visitors then conceded a 6-2 run to end the game at 68-52… (19-8)
Eagles U23 head coach said “Today was both very frustrating and annoying… The frustration was we didn’t match up well early doors and played poor defence… we then had a great spell across about 16 minutes which put us right up there with a great shout of building on our recent run…. We then continued to play good defence but couldn’t get scores…The annoyance was certain players thought they knew better and it actually hurt us in the end… We have cleared the air and will move on this weekend with renewed heart and goals….”
Eagles Top Scorers- Themba Yabantu 21, Ishmael Ingham 9 and Ben Hogg 7….
Eagles away to Stockport Falcons Saturday 24th Feb tip off 6pm…
