Recap

Newcastle Eagles 51 – 41 Manchester Mystics 3

The Eagles took to the court to play Mystics in their first home game of the season, looking to extend their winning streak after last weeks victory.

The first quarter set the tone for the whole game, as the Eagles were in for a much tougher match this week. Both teams were determined and fought hard on both ends of the court. Mystics defence was stronger than last weeks opponents and the Eagles struggled to run their Fastbreak offence as easily. With both teams on team fouls, the Eagles had many chances at the freethrow line and this gave them the opportunity to bag extra points and end the quarter leading 19-12.

The Eagles had run out of steam in the second quarter after pressing full court defensively in the first. They struggled to stop Mystics transition offence and had to drop back to half court defence to try and maintain their lead. Mystics took advantage of the tired Eagles and fought hard to close the gap and end the first half only down by one point, 32-31 to Newcastle.

A very scrappy third quarter saw both teams struggling to score, with many travels and jump balls called. The Eagles tried to claw back a strong lead, but a lack of structured offence and many turnovers, meant they only scored 9 points. The Eagles went into the last quarter winning 41-38.

As both teams had players in foul trouble, they had to rotate their bench more frequently. The Eagles turned a greater focus to their defence for the last 10 minutes of the game and managed to allow Mystics to only score 3 points. After a scrappy and very back and forth game, the Eagles took the win 51-41

SCORERS

Jessie = 15
Chloe = 6
Nina = 13
Alisha = 3
Lexie = 4
Sophie Ward = 2
Ada = 2
Robyn = 4
Sophie Mustafa = 2