Recap

It was a tough Sunday outing for the Eagles U16 Boys as they went down 89-41 to an older and physically dominant Manchester Giants team.

Despite an encouraging and competitive start which witnessed the home side take only a modest 21-14 advantage, the second period was a different story as the hosts turned up the noise at both ends of the floor.

Taking full advantage of being allowed to play aggressive defence and particularly on the ball, they capitalised with a flurry of fast break scores and dunks. Locking down the Eagles defensively, they held the visitors to a solitary basket and that secured them a commanding 43-16 lead at the break.

The third quarter saw something of an Eagles revival with better work on defence and moving the baller more freely offensively. However, still the Giants stood firm and stretched their lead out to 65-27 heading into the last 10 minutes.

It was a similar story in the last quarter as Manchester coasted to a one-sided victory and in the process, giving Eagles’ Head Coach Chloe Gaynor and her players plenty of food for thought.

She said: “We allowed ourselves to be physically and maybe also mentally dominated at times in the game, so it was not just all about basketball talent.

“As a group of players and coaches, we spoke about this in depth when we went to the locker room afterwards.”

“We are determined to fix this individually, but perhaps most powerfully, as a collective. We now need to take all the learnings we need from a very challenging day.”

The Eagles U16 boys return to action on Sunday 16 October in a Cup game against York at the Vertu Motors Arena in a 2.30pm tip-off.