Recap
The Eagles U23 were looking to finish 2018 off on a winning note and maintaining their 2nd position in the league against bottom of the table and winless Wire….Eagles travelled again without injured Blake Keeble, Domantas Karpinskas was away in Lithuania and assistant coach George was sick… Luc Heath stepped in to assist his dad…
The match tip off was delayed due to the previous game over running, the Eagles in white and Wire in green played with an up tempo feel to the opening period… The Eagles were in no mood to start slowly and with some good ball movement and fantastic perimeter shooting they jumped out to an early 8-23 lead including 5 triples… Both teams for latter part of the quarter traded hoops with Wires top scorer (M Dennis) for the season so far keeping his side in touch with the visitors and the score finished 21-34…
The 2nd period was another great performance offensively by the travelling Eagles as they again racked up 28 points including 6 triples 4 of them coming from Sauvuer Kande who had stepped up from the U18s… Again Dennis and A Rey scored at times too easily for the hosts but the quarter ended 20-28 making it 41-62 at the half time break….
The quick 5 minute half time certainly helped the home team as they came out of the blocks the quickest going on a 10-5 run in the first 5 minutes of the 3rd… (51-68) The Eagles regrouped a little but the Wire took the period 28-20 making it 67-82….
The 4th quarter was only 2 minutes old and the Wire had again got a jump out of the blocks with a 7-0 run making it 74-82… Eagles took a timeout and it had the desired effect as they hit back with a massive 0-9 run and along with Wires influential Dennis being ejected for a second unsportsmanlike foul the Eagles were up 76-91… Wire then scored before the Eagles opened up the floor again going on a 0-15 run killing off the plucky home team leading now 78-106… The last minute saw the Wire edge it 5-4 closing the game out at 83-110…
Eagles U23 head coach said “We played some unbelievable offence with great ball and player movement, we had them chasing shadows… Our shooting from the perimeter was exquisite making 14 triples and we were also very clinical around the hoop… However our defence was good at times but we should have kept them under 70… We gave Dennis and Rey too much respect and they could have carried them to a victory… We will work on certain things moving into 2019….We had 6 players in double a figure which is great…”
Eagles Top Scorers Rafael Camargo-Blas 19, Tom Usher 19, Alex Horta 19, Chris Linsley 13, Sauvuer Kande 12 and Shaquille Freeman 10…
Wire Top Scorers- M Dennis 36, A Rey 27 and O Ball 12…
The Eagles will play away to Kingston Panthers on Saturday 5th January 2019…
