Recap
In their second away game of the season, the Newcastle Eagles were taking on Derby Trailblazers. The teams both had similar records coming into the game so the Eagles knew this would be a test from the start.
The first 5 for the Eagles started the game strong with their full court pressure creating turnovers which enabled them to get easy scores and run out to a 12-0 start after 5mins. Derby recovered well though at the end of the quarter and managed to get back a few scores to cut the lead to 14-6 after the first.
The start of the second quarter saw the Eagles get easy scores and they further increased their lead to 26-9. Again, the Eagles were unable to maintain their form with Derby making some big shots and going on a run of their own to cut the lead down to 8. Defensively the Eagles were now struggling a little with Derby adjusting well to stop the Eagles pressure. A few good scores at the end of the quarter stopped the bleeding a bit and the away team went into the half with a 34-22 lead.
At the start of the 2nd half, both teams went back and forth with scores with the Eagles losing a bit of their intensity on the defensive end and allowing Derby some easy scores. It was a scrappy game with both teams getting away with a lot of contact on both ends of the floor. The Eagles managed to just edge the quarter 14-10 and further extend their lead.
Derby to their credit were not going to give up and started the 4th quarter the best of both teams and went on a 7-2 run to close the gap to 11. They were pushing hard but the Eagles showed composure under pressure and didn’t let them get closer than 11 before closing out the game to take a 58-47 win.
The Eagles showed some grit on the road to tough out a scrappy game. It wasn’t their best performance but their defensive intensity at times created some easy scores for the team. Some bright spells for the Eagles bode well for the future as they look to build on this performance in their game next week against the Lancashire Spinners who are currently unbeaten. They take on the Spinners on Saturday the 3rd at home.
Top Scorers: Lauren Bird & Yemisi Mefful – 12, Olivia Weymes & Judy Eladawy – 10
