Recap

Manchester Mystics  v Newcastle Eagles u14 Girls

The Eagles make the trip to the north -west to play Manchester Mystics 1 at the Manchester Basketball Centre on a windy winter’s day which did its best to derail the fixture but the match went ahead as planned. The Eagles lined up against the strongest team in the league who are unbeaten in all games and had a full strength team available for the fixture.

The first quarter started off by both teams taking a few shots without success, however the Mystics settled into their rhythm seeming scoring every shot they took, unfortunately the Eagles had the opposite luck and struggled to find their range.

The first quarter finished Mystics 23 v Eagles 2.

For the start of the second quarter the Eagles seemed to have more defensive purpose and starting battling for rebounds and steals which resulted in more attacking possession of the ball and increased success in scoring. However, a well organised experienced Mystics team didn’t take long before they started scoring. A better quarter for the Eagles however the Mystics still extended their lead to finish the quarter 19 v 10 bring the score at half time Mystics 42 v Eagles 12.

The third quarter saw the Eagles best spell in the game, initially when the quarter started the Mystics continued to increase their lead however some great battling performances from the Eagles players began to pay dividends. With increased hustle, wining more rebounds and significantly less turnovers the Eagles narrowly lost the quarter by 4 points. This quarter was certainly a credit to team attitude of not giving up even though the Mystics enjoyed a health lead. The quarter finished Mystics 18 v Eagles 14. Bring the score to Mystics 60 v Eagles 26.

For the final quarter, the Eagles continued to try and match the Mystics however did not enjoy the success they did in the final quarter. As the Eagles tried to press the Mystics used their experience to manage the game and see it out to the end extending their lead further to finish the quarter 16 to 8.

The final score was Manchester Mystics 76 v Newcastle Eagles 34.

Although the score line may have gone against the Eagles, the team and coaches can certainly be proud of their efforts against what can only be described as a formidable opponent. There is certainly encouragement for the Eagles going forward as compared to the previous Mystics v Eagles games, the amount of successful rebounds nearly double that of the previous encounter.

Game Scorers;

Sophie Ward – 16pts
Robyn Donnelly -6pts
Imogen Reynolds -3pts
Daisy Bensley – 3pts
Abigail Stempczyk – 2pts
Elizabeth Muir – 2pts
Sophie Irwin – 2pts