Recap
The young Eagles team were taking on their first away game for the season and traveled down to Liverpool to face Mersey Mavericks. They knew going in that they would be facing a tall and strong rebounding team and wanted to avoid the lapses from last week that cost them the game.
A switch up with the starting five from last week worked wonderfully with the Eagles coming out aggressively on defence to get some steals and easy baskets to put Mersey under pressure early on. The second five players came in for the second part of the quarter with the same intensity defensively and a big 3 early on gave them the momentum to carve out a 17-7 lead.
The second quarter saw the Eagles maintain their pressure on the defensive end and their confidence was building with some great off ball movement on the offensive side creating some great opportunities for the team. Mersey had their chances however but were unable to convert them and the Eagles were doing a decent job at limiting their bigs to one shot opportunities. A couple of great execution plays from the out of bounds also gave the young team some easy scores to go into the half 35-10 up.
At the second half the big question was whether the Eagles would be able to maintain the pressure that they had applied. Last week the third quarter cost them the game and a lot of effort had gone into the first half performance and their full court defence. To their credit, however, the Eagles came out just as strong and firing on both ends of the floor to further extend their lead. Mersey did not give up however and got some good baskets of their own making it a more competitive match that the score suggested. At the end of the third the Eagles were up 48-19.
The fourth quarter was much of the same with the Eagles looking to seal up the win and managed to close out the game confidently with a 16-11 fourth quarter and a 64-30 win on the road.
It was a great team performance by the Eagles. In their first away game they showed little signs of nerves and after their great start they never looked back. It was fantastic to see them execute what they had been working on in training with some good ball movement and some high intensity on defence. Every player scored and every player contributed to the team which was great to see.
Next up for the Eagles is Derby Trailblazers in what will be a tough away game on the 27th of October. Both teams are at 1-1 for the season and looking to get a crucial win to really kick start their seasons.
Top Scorers: Lauren Bird – 12 points, Judy Eladawy – 12 points, Yemisi Mefful – 10 points, Olivia Weymes – 10 points
