Recap

Doncaster was looking to remain unbeaten and stay top of Division 4 North… The Eagles were looking to get a good away victory in the start of a big weekender on the road… The Eagles travelled minus Blake Keeble still injured….

The game was played in front of a very partisan home crowd of around 40 people; the visiting Eagles had the support of their U18s who had played just before… The game got underway the Newcastle Eagles in white got off to a flying start as some tough defence led to some great offence with both Chris Linsley and Tom Usher hitting downtown 3s making it 0-11 within the first 4 minutes… Doncaster playing in black got on the board with two free throws before some basket trading made it 9-15 on 7 minutes… The visitors finished slightly the stronger with a 7-8 run closing out the first period at 16-23…..

The 2nd quarter was a much closer affair with the home team in black putting up a better performance both ends of the floor… The boys in white hit the first 5 points with Ben Spoors from the perimeter and Domantas Karpinskas from inside making it 16-28… The teams again traded scores before the home team went on a 9-0 run closing the score up to 29-30…. Coach Heath called time out and it had a desired effect as the Eagles hit back with a 0-8 run before Doncaster’s main player Oliver Hylands hit another perimeter score to go into the half time break at 32-38…. (16-15)

The 3rd period saw the Eagles again dominate the floor but only after Doncaster had opened with 5 points of their own making it 38-38… The Eagles rallied with another 0-9 run with Karpinskas and Usher again from outside making it 38-47….

The home side then hit a score before the boys in white hit another 0-8 run making it 40-56 by the 5th minute…. The final 5 minutes of the quarter saw both teams score tradeoffs with Doncaster edging it 12-10 making it 52-66… (20-28)

The 4th quarter saw the Eagles do a very professional job at closing out the game as they managed the final 10 minutes with ease never really letting the home team back into the top of the table match… Eagles ran out winners 67-84… (15-18)

Eagles U23 head coach Graham Heath said “We came and played solid basketball as a team for 40 minutes… Our intensity was there from start to finish on the defensive end and our execution of offence was sublime… I would say this has been our most complete game to date and all players contributed something to our cause…. We moved to the top of the table with this win and we now need to maintain our standards throughout to achieve our target of promotion….”

Eagles Top Scorers- Karpinskas 20, Camargo-Blas 14 and Usher 12