Recap

The young Eagles were taking on their first game of the season at home against one of the two teams from Tameside Royals. With the new rules in place at this level, the first 5 players started the game fairly nervously and went down 9-2 early. Struggling to cope with the full court pressure, turnovers were causing plenty of the issues for the team. The next 5 players however came in for the last part of the first quarter and were a little more settled and managed to claw back the lead with some good ball movement to finish the first quarter 19-18 down.

The start of the second quarter saw Tameside jump out to a 6-0 run with again turnovers causing the Eagles team some issues. They however again fought back to come within one point showing a bit more composure under pressure. Tameside finished strong to close out the half with a 33-28 lead and all to play for in the second half.

The start of the second half started like most of the quarters with Tameside stomping down their authority and going on a strong 10-0 lead to stretch their lead to 15. Foul trouble for the Eagles and little lack of experience at this level saw them unable to stop the run with Tameside pushing the score to 51-32. The end of the quarter saw some strong positives for the Eagles with them moving the ball well and getting two very good team baskets to be down 51-36 at the end of the third.

For the fourth time in the game, the start of the quarter was an issue for the girls with Tameside taking their lead back up to 20. After a quick timeout and a regroup, the Eagles fought back with a run of their own to bring the gap back down to 10 with 2 minutes remaining. This took a lot out of the team and unfortunately Tameside ran away with it in the last two minutes to win the game 70-50.

A lot of positives in their first game for the Eagles at this level. The lack of experience of full court pressure and intensity at this level saw them unable to maintain their standards throughout the game. They competed well at times and when they were a little more composed they got some easy baskets and played well as a team. Unfortunately a few too many turnovers gave Tameside too many cheap baskets with resulted in the fairly flattering score in their favour.

Next up for the Eagles is their first away game against Mersey Mavericks which presents a whole different challenge.

Eagles Top Scorers: Lauren Bird – 14, Charlotte Millburn – 10, Abby Foster and Izzy Jonas – 6